Chapter 5

"So, this is it," John said, gesturing around the hotel room in Manning where he'd left all of his research pinned to the walls while we were out hunting the last vampire. It wasn't what I would have done, but whatever. "This is everything I know." Abby and I sat on the bed that was situated behind John's desk, trying not to be seen.

"Look, our whole lives we've been searching for this demon, right? And not a trace, nothing…until about a year ago. And for the first time, I picked up a trail."

"That's when you took off," Dean interrupted while Sam brooded against the kitchenette sink. I listened quietly while John explained that the demon had come out of hiding and had been leaving a trail from Arizona to New Jersey to California.

"It's going after families, just like it went after us."

"Families with infants?" Sam wondered.

"Yeah," John hung his head. "The night of the kid's six month birthday."

"I was six months old that night?"

"Exactly six months…"

Sam's mood darkened. "So, basically this demon is going after these kids for some reason…the same way it came for me?" It took me a minute to realize his irritation was with John for not having told him, and with himself because he thought he could have stopped it. "So, Mom's death…Jessica…it's all 'cause of me?"

"We don't know that, Sam," Dean insisted.

"Oh, really?! Because I'm sure that we're pretty damn sure, Dean!"

"For the last time, what happened to them was not your fault!" "Wish he'd stop blaming himself. He was six months old, for fuck's sake."

"No, it's not my fault, but it's my problem!" Sam raised his voice and took an offensive stance.

"It's our problem!" Dean yelled back.

"Okay! That's enough!" John stood up.

"So many issues…" I worried and tapped my foot. Their conversation went on, but Abby and I had stopped paying attention. There was way too much testosterone and pent up anger between the three of them. It made our heads hurt. "I'm starting to worry that this may not have been a brilliant plan."

"They helped us," she reminded me.

"Yeah, with a pack of vampires! This demon sounds like a pretty big fish! Compared to that, our vamps were a fucking cake-walk!"

"Then they'll owe us in the future."

"If we have a future," I seethed quietly. The yelling had died down. Now John and Dean were just sad, while Sam was ready to hit the road and kill the demon.

"Where?" he asked with a jerk of his head.

"Salvation, Iowa," John told him.

I was following Dean's Impala into the town limits of Salvation when John veered off onto a side road. I'd gathered that there was some static coming from his truck, but I'd been more focused on Sam and Dean.

Dean was worried about how focused Sam was on getting this job done right. He did not worry in vain. Sam was worried about getting the job done, but wasn't as worried about doing it right. He was too emotionally attached to see this objectively.

We parked next to a river. Right as I was getting out of the Challenger, I heard John say, "I just got a call from Caleb."

"Is he okay?" Dean asked worriedly.

"He's fine. Jim Murphy is dead."

"Pastor Jim? How?" Sam was appalled, sad, and frustrated. I didn't blame him. So many people had died because of this demon. I didn't think he should blame himself for it all, though. What could he do, really?

"Throat was slashed…he bled out. Caleb said they found traces of sulfur at Jim's place."

"A demon?" Dean asked. John nodded. "The demon?"

"I don't know. Could be he just got careless, he slipped up. Maybe the demon knows we're getting close." John was beyond frustrated. Jim Murphy had been a good friend and ally, one that John had counted as indispensable.

"What do you wanna do?"

"Now we act like every second counts. There's two hospitals and a health center in this county. We split up, we cover more grounds. I want records. I want a list of every infant that will be six months old in the next week."

"Dad, that could be dozens of kids. How will we know which one is the right one?" Sam questioned him. He was right. That list could be miles long.

"We check them all, that's how! Got any better ideas?"

"No, sir," he conceded. It was almost funny how hard it was for Sam to agree with John, even on the simplest things.

"Dad?" Dean said right before John climbed into his car.

"Yeah?" he replied. They exchanged a look that I couldn't really see before John said, "It's Jim. You know, I can't… This ends. Now. I'm ending it. I don't care what it takes."

John got back in his truck. Dean and Sam glanced backward at Abby and I, who were at a loss for words. I really didn't know what to tell them. Losing friends was hard, especially when they'd just gotten caught in the crossfire and weren't actually involved firsthand.

I followed them to a hospital, where Dean told me they were to split up. "Freckles, you're going with Sam. Gabby, you're with me. Dad's got the other hospital covered."

"Of course," I rolled my eyes, but went with Dean even though I didn't want to.

"Hi," said the pretty girl behind the counter. Dean walked up to her with as charming of a smile as he could muster. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Oh, God, yes," he replied.

The girl blushed and smiled down at her papers. "Cute, but what a creep," she thought to herself.

"Real smooth, Casanova," I projected to him.

"Shut up." "Only, I'm working right now, so…" he flashed his badge. I blanched a little. No one had told me we were supposed to be fake cops. "This is my partner in training. She doesn't have her badge, yet." Dean gestured towards me, and the idiot girl bought it. In fact, she believed it so much that she started to worry about us finding the stash of cocaine she had stored in her purse. I almost wanted to say something.

"Oh, well, what can I help you nice officers with?"

"We're looking for records on infants that will be six months old within the next week."

The girl breathed a sigh of relief, turned around, and started rifling through drawers to try to find the appropriate files. Dean stared at her the whole time she did it, admiring her assets. I slapped him on his arm, which was more muscular than I'd previously thought. "What was that for…?"

"She's on cocaine," I told him. "And she's a lesbian." Only the last part was a lie, but it got him to focus more on the job.

When she turned around with the files I said, "Can you give us copies of those? Just one copy will do."

My head flooded with images all of a sudden. I recognized them as what Abby was seeing.

Sam was clutching at his head, seeing images of a baby's room. "Sam! Sam, are you okay?" I asked urgently and tried to get him to focus on talking to me. "What is it? What's happening?"

"The baby…" He saw a woman putting a baby girl in her crib. In the distance, a train was rumbling down a track. A dark man in a coat was standing over the crib, just as the mom walked into the room. Then it stopped. "Train…" He quit clutching his head and pulled a map out of his backpack. "This," he pointed at a neighborhood. "This is the only baby that fits our description and lives near train tracks."

"You're sure that's the one we're looking for?" Why hadn't he said anything about these visions? I hadn't sensed it like I did every other time I met another psychic.

"Yes!"He took off running in the direction of the house in question. I reluctantly followed.

"Keep digging," she told me outside of what she was seeing. "I'm not sure how accurate he is."

I kept looking through the files, but I was so distracted. Sam was a psychic? I felt like that was something he should have mentioned to us, especially since he knew we were psychics too. Maybe that was why he hesitated when he had a gun pointed at Abby's head the night we met them in Manning.

"You okay?" Dean glanced up from his pile of paperwork. Our eyes met for a second. I'd never really paid attention to Dean's looks much. So, up until now, I hadn't noticed that his eyes were very green. He was tall, but not as freakishly tall as Sam, and broad shouldered. His light brown hair was cut short and spiked into a faux-hawk type of style, and his facial features were really soft…for a guy anyway.

"I'm fine. It's just Sam," I replied before I thought about it. Dean, naturally, got upset.

"What about Sam?" "Is he in trouble? Did he find something? I don't know how this psychic shit works…"

"Nothing. I'll talk to you about it later." "Not here…"

He gritted his teeth and flipped the file that he was looking at closed with frustration. "It could be any one of these kids. How are we supposed to know which one it is?"

"I think Sam found the one it's supposed to be," I told him.

"How do you know that?"

"Abby told me," I shrugged.

"How the hell do they do that?" he wondered and stared at the files idly again.

"Like this," I smiled. He shook his head and rubbed his face with his hands.

About twenty minutes later, Dean's cell phone rang. It was Sam saying he wanted us to meet him at a hotel somewhere downtown. From the bits and pieces I could hear, it sounded pretty urgent.

"Let's roll, sweet cheeks." Dean grabbed all of his stuff and led me back out to the car.

"Don't call me that," I rolled my eyes and followed behind his trail of Old Spice and leather.