A/N: Warning before reading this note-it contains spoilers for the last chapter. If for whatever reason, you're skipping chapters, proceed at your own risk.
I got a comment from a friend of mine reading this (in person, not on the website) that Janie doesn't seem to care very much about what happened to her adoptive parents, or about her little sister/daughter being missing. I don't know why this comment got to me, but it kind of did. In case anyone else might be thinking along those lines, let me explain. Janie has been through more in her life than most people can fathom. She has also just lost the two people who gave her a home after she left her father. She's in shock, which I know from personal experience can take years to wear off. She's also struggling with mixed feelings about Sabrina. All of this is going through her at once, and she feels like she has to focus on finding out what happened to her parents. I hope that makes sense.
Chapter Four
Sam and Dean were silent again. Janie prepared for them to turn away, to tell her that they were done with her, but they didn't. Janie broke the silence.
"Dean, I just can't. After I had Sabrina, my adoptive parents wanted to adopt her too and raise her as my little sister. I thought it was a great idea at first, but I couldn't look at her without thinking about how she came into the world." She explained. "I don't blame Sabrina for anything, but I'm afraid if I keep her, she's going to be able to see that." Janie sighed in frustration. "God, I sound like an awful person."
"You're not." Sam said. "It makes sense to me."
"Yeah. Me too. I'm sorry I pressured you." Dean said.
"It's okay." Janie said. "It really is. Come on, let's go inside."
The three of them followed Janie inside. They had pulled up Dean realized that they'd been so caught up in Janie's story that they hadn't come up with any kind of background. He didn't have time to bring the point up, as a guy that they had never seen before got out of a car from across the street.
"Janie!"
"AJ!"
The two of them hugged briefly. "It's good to see you." AJ said. "I just wish it was for a different reason."
"Me too." Janie said. "Have you found Sabrina?"
"No. I'm sorry, we're still looking."
"Hang on. I had a thought. Can I go inside?" Janie asked.
"Sure." AJ said. "What are you thinking?"
"Just follow me."
The three men followed Janie inside. She went up the small staircase to a bedroom. There was a hand drawn poster on the door that read, in pink and purple letters, "Sabrina's Room". AJ reminded her that they had already searched Sabrina's room the day her parents had been found.
"Trust me."
Janie went to the corner of the room, knelt down in front of the door to Sabrina's closet, and reached up to take the door handle. She pulled on the doorknob, and found it locked.
"What the hell?" AJ said.
Janie put a finger to her lips. She knocked softly on the door, and the three of them heard a shuffling noise inside. Dean instinctively reached for his gun, but Janie shook her head.
"Sabby? Open the door, baby. It's sissy." When she received no response, Janie asked again. "Sabby? It's okay. I'm here now. Please open the door." Again, no response, and Janie got an idea. "Dean. Will you come here, please?"
Dean joined Janie next to the door, wondering what she was planning to do.
"Sabby? I've got some friends out here with me. They're gonna help me figure out what happened to mommy and daddy. But to do that, we need to talk to you. We need to know what happened. Can you come out and meet them for me?"
Slowly, the lock to the closet clicked, the doorknob turned, and a small hand came out of the closet. A small girl came out, one that looked to Dean thought looked like the spitting image of Janie, and stood staring wide-eyed at Janie and the three other adults in the room.
"Hey, baby. Are you okay?" Janie asked. Sabrina was staring at Dean, backing away from him, seeming to try and melt into the doorframe. "It's okay, Sabby. This is my friend, Dean. Whatever happened, whatever you saw, Dean's gonna help keep you safe. Right?"
"That's right, kiddo. We're here to help."
Sabrina looked to Janie and asked, "Are mommy and daddy okay?"
Janie swallowed hard. "No, honey. They're not. They're gone."
"They're dead?" Sabrina asked, her voice cracking.
"Yeah, honey. I'm so sorry." Before Sabrina broke down, Janie asked, "Can you tell me what happened?"
"Daddy was upstairs getting ready for work. I was getting dressed for school. We heard a loud noise and mommy scream. Daddy told me to stay in my room and he went downstairs to help her. Then I heard him yell at somebody to get out."
"Sabrina? Did you see who it was?" AJ asked from the door.
Sabrina nodded. "He came up to my room and grabbed me."
"He what? Are you hurt?" Janie asked.
"No. He just dragged me downstairs with mommy and daddy. He kept us downstairs all day and wouldn't let us go anywhere."
"Did he say who he was? Or what he wanted?" Janie asked.
"He said he wanted you."
Janie was certain she'd heard wrong, but based on the looks on the faces of everyone else in the room, she hadn't.
"He said he wanted me?"
"Yeah." Sabrina said. "He said we couldn't leave until Janie got here."
"What the hell?" Janie asked. "How did you get away?"
"He got mad 'cause mommy and daddy wouldn't call you and ask you to come. He went to the kitchen and Daddy told me to run out the door for help." Sabrina started crying again. "I heard a loud popping noise when I got to the street. I looked back and saw a flash of light."
"Oh, baby." Janie pulled Sabrina into a hug. "What happened next?"
"I hid across the street and waited until the house was empty."
"Why didn't you talk to the police?" Dean asked.
Sabrina seemed taken aback by Dean's intrusion into her and Janie's conversation, but she answered him. "I was scared. I thought if I left my hiding place that he'd come back. When everybody was gone and I was sure, I ran back across the street as fast as I could."
"It's okay, Sabby." Janie said. "It's okay, baby."
"I'm gonna call the station and let them know she's safe." AJ said from the doorway, before his phone rang first.
"I shouldn't have run away. I should've gone for help." Sabrina said.
"Sabby, listen to me. You did the right thing, sweetie. If you had come back, he could have hurt you too."
"But I might've saved them." Sabrina said.
"You couldn't have saved them, Sabrina." AJ had come back into the room, and was hanging up his phone. "Honey, they died right away."
"They did?" Sabrina asked.
"Yeah." AJ said. "I need to talk to you. Alone."
"Okay." Janie turned towards Sabrina and suggested, "Do you still like looking at old cars?"
"Yeah."
"Dean's got a beauty outside. I'm sure he'd love to show you."
"Really?" Sabrina asked.
"You bet I would." Dean said enthusiastically. "And Baby's not old. It's…"
"Classic." Sabrina said with a smile. "Can I see it?"
"Wait a second." Janie said. "Listen, Sabby, I want Dean to carry you outside."
"Why?"
"Just trust me. Okay?" Janie said. The thought of Sabrina seeing the bloodstains that were still inside the house made her shudder. "Let Dean pick you up and carry you outside. Put your head on his shoulder and close your eyes until you get outside. Okay?"
"Okay, sissy." Sabrina said.
It was awkward for both Dean and Sabrina, who, at nine years old, was almost too big for Dean to carry. But Dean carried her out the door, down the stairs, and outside towards Baby. Only when Janie heard Sabrina shout 'WOW!' did she turn back to AJ.
"What's going on?"
"Well, that was the coroner. Like I said, your parents each had one shot to the head that killed them straight away." AJ told her.
"Okay." Janie said. "AJ, what are trying not to tell me?"
AJ took a breath before he told her. "We have a suspect. All but one of the fingerprints we took matched your mom, dad, or Sabrina."
"That's good, isn't it? Who's the suspect?"
"Jane, I'm sorry." AJ said. "I wanted to tell you, but your dad wouldn't let me."
"Tell me what?"
"The fingerprint was a match for Leon Foster."
Next chapter: Dean talks to Sabrina outside. Janie deals with AJ's revelation, and the search for Leon begins.