It's a Terrible Life Part 1

An alarm clock flipped from 5:59 to 6:00 and started beeping. A hand shut it off.

~/~\~

A coffee cup was being filled from an espresso machine.

The cup was held by Dean, who was in business dress with his hair slicked down.

~/~\~

Dean crossed the street to a silver Toyota Prius.

~/~\~

Dean started the car and rock music blared. Dean looked at it, confused, and changed the station.

"NPR Morning Edition." The radio said. "It's time for this waste and—

~/~\~

Dean drove off in the Prius.

~/~\~

Dean got out of the elevator and crossed the lobby, Angela walking alongside him dressed in a coral cutout detail jacquard sheath dress and nude heels, her hair in a tight bun. There was a Sandover Bridge and Iron history display along the wall.

Dean entered an office labeled 'Dean Smith- Director, Sales and Marketing. Angela followed him inside, giving him a few memos before leaving to go to her desk.

~/~\~

Dean typed at a computer and laughed into a phone headset.

~/~\~

Dean was having a conversation with someone now in his office.

"All I wanna know is when are they gonna have another show like Project Runway?" Dean asked. "Man."

~/~\~

Dean flipped his tie over his shoulder and ate a salad.

~/~\~

Dean was standing and speaking into the headset.

"Net probability aside, it's the client retention rate that concerns me vis-à-vis maximizing return on sales." Dean said. "Buzz me back once you've seen the spreadsheets."

Another someone entered the office.

"Mr. Adler." Dean said.

"Dean." Adler replied, slapping him on the shoulder. "Good stuff."

"Good stuff?"

"Big things. Good stuff." Adler nodded.

"Good stuff."

~/~\~

Dean was sitting at his desk playing with something and speaking into the headset.

"Oh I hear you." Dean said. "No, I haven't been to the gym in ages. Carrying a little bloat around myself. It's a sedentary lifestyle, my man, no two ways. All right, tell me one more time. You said lemon and, what was it? Cayenne and maple syrup, are you serious? How much did you lose?"

Dean put some files in a case and left the office.

~/~\~

Dean and Angela were talking before they entered the elevator. They looked over at the other occupant of the elevator, who was staring at them; it was Sam, who was wearing a short-sleeved shirt that said 'Sandover Bridge and Iron Inc. Tech Support'.

"Do I know you guys?" Sam asked suddenly.

Angela shook her head. "No, I don't think so." She said. "Do you know him Mr. Smith?"

"I don't think so." Dean replied.

"I'm sorry; you two just look really familiar." Sam continued.

"Save it for the health club, pal." Dean said.

The elevator dinged and Dean and Angela got out. Sam stared after them.

~/~\~

A printer whirred and spit out paper. A fax machine whirred and sucked in papers. An automatic pencil sharpener whirred. A phone rang. Sam pressed a button on the phone and talked into a headset.

"Tech support, this is Sam Wesson. Okay. Uh, well, did you try turning it off and then on?" Sam poked at a vampire bobble head. "Okay, go ahead and turn it off. No, no, no, just, just off. All right, give it a second. Turn it back on. Okay, is it printing now? Great. Anytime."

Sam took off the headset and pressed a button on the phone. A man at a cubicle behind Sam, the only one in the room who was not wearing a yellow uniform shirt, rolled his chair over to Sam.

"Hey." The man said.

"Yo." Sam replied.

"What do you think of Mimi?"

Sam looked over and shrugged. "She's okay."

"Might have to hit that." The man said.

"Oh, dude, that's totally age inappropriate." Sam replied.

"Experience."

"Trifocals." Sam said.

"There's a MILF there, Sam. I just know it. Maybe a GMILF."

"Come on." Sam replied.

"Coffee break?" the man asked.

"Yeah, for sure."

Sam and the man got up. The passed another man at his cubicle.

"Paul." The first man said. "Time for a refuel, buddy."

"Sorry, no time." Paul replied.

"Since when?" the man scoffed. "Dude, we get paid by the hour."

"Working." Paul said.

"Okay." The man sighed.

"He seems stressed." Sam said.

"Freaked because he got busted surfing porn on the internet."

"No, no, no way." Sam said. "When?"

"Got sent up to HR yesterday. Guess they put the fear of God in him."

~/~\~

The microwave dinged and someone took out a bag of popcorn and left. Sam headed for the coffee pot. The man went to a supply cabinet and started pocketing packets of pencils.

"Ian, dude." Sam said.

"Just doing a little shopping." Ian shrugged. "Running low at home."

Sam handed Ian a cup of coffee.

"So, Sam, had any of those dreams lately?" Ian asked.

Sam turned away.

"What?" Ian asked. "Don't be like that. Come on. It's the highlight of my day."

"I never should have told you in the first place." Sam replied.

"They're genius. Don't hold out on me, dude. Share with the class."

"You're just gonna be a dick about it." Sam replied.

"What? No way. I won't say a word. Total respect. Go."

"I dreamt that I saved a grim reaper named Tessa from demons." Sam replied.

Ian burst out laughing. Sam looked away and sighed.

"Classic!" Ian howled. "How much D and De did you play when you were a kid? Oh, my, okay, so you, rescuing the grim reaper. That's, you're a hero. I mean, thank God we got Harry Potter here to save us all from the apocalypse."

"Dick." Sam said.

"Wizard."

~/~\~

A printer whirred and spit out paper. A fax machine whirred and sucked in papers. An automatic pencil sharpener whirred. Sam was back in his cubicle, filling out a form on a clipboard. He yawned and propped his head on his hand, closing his eyes.

~/~\~

Sam entered the elevator. Dean, Angela and a few others were there. Sam tried not to stare at Dean and Angela while the elevator whirred. Ding: everyone but Sam, Dean and Angela got out. The elevator closed.

"Can I ask you two a question?" Sam asked.

Angela glanced at Sam.

"Look, man, I told you, I'm not into the, uh—Dean started.

"Oh dude, come on, I'm not either." Sam replied. "I just wanna ask you guys one question."

Dean looked at Angela who just shrugged.

"Couldn't hurt." She whispered.

Dean sighed and looked at Sam. "Sure."

"What do you two think about ghosts?" Sam asked.

"Ghosts?" Angela giggled.

"Do you believe in them?" Sam asked.

She shook her head. "No." she laughed. "No, it's silly."

Dean laughed in agreement. "Uh, tell you the truth, I've never given it much thought."

"Vampires?" Sam asked.

"What? Why?" Dean asked.

"Because I've been having some weird dreams lately." Sam replied. "You know what I mean."

"No…" Angela shook her head, inching closer to Dean.

"No. Not really." Dean agreed with Angela.

"So, you two have never had any… weird dreams?" Sam asked.

"All right." Angela huffed, looking at Sam. "We don't know you, okay?" she added. "But I'm gonna do you a public service and let you know that, that overshare, sweetie." She said.

Dean nodded in agreement and pressed a floor button. The elevator dinged and Dean and Angela left.

~/~\~

A printer whirred and spit out paper. A fax machine whirred and sucked in papers. An automatic pencil sharpener whirred. Sam was again in his cubicle addressing his headset.

"Did you turn it off, then on?" Sam asked. He was drawing vampires on a pad of paper. "All right, well, let's try that. No, no, it's fine, I'll wait."

Sam pulled up a search engine on his computer, looked both ways, and typed in 'vampires'. He clicked to image search and glanced over the pictures of Dracula wannabes.

"Is it printing now?" Sam asked. "Oh, that's great. Anytime."

"Whatcha doing?" Ian asked.

Sam minimized the search engine and hid the sketches, then turned to Ian, shaking his head. Ian was still the only one not wearing the yellow shirt.

"Nothing." Sam shrugged.

"You get an email from Human Resources?" Ian asked.

"No. Why?"

"Dammit." Ian muttered. "Guess it's just me, then. I'm supposed to, quote, report to HR, unquote."

"They're probably finally busting you for snaking all those office supplies."

"I hope they spank me." Ian smiled.

Ian laughed, shoved his chair back to his cubicle, and left. Sam returned to his search engine.

"No, no, no, no, no, no." Paul groaned. "Come on. Don't do this to me. Please."

Sam minimized the window, took off his headset, and stood up to lean over Paul's cubicle.

"Hey, man, you okay?" Sam asked.

"It froze." Paul said.

"They're crap, Paul." Sam replied. "They freeze all the time."

"You don't understand. When I, when I rebooted, everything was gone. A whole day's work deleted."

"Well, did you back up?" Sam asked.

"No, I didn't back up. I wish to God I backed up but I didn't. I'll get it back. I'll find it. It's somewhere. I'll find it."

"Paul, it's okay, man." Sam assured. "These things happen."

~/~\~

People in coroner outfits rolled a body bag past. Sam watched and sighed. Dean, Angela and several other people, some in suits and some in yellow shirts, also watched. Sam noticed Dean and Angela, who noticed him.

"Something about this seem not right to you?" Angela asked Dean and another suit.

"Uh, yeah, try the whole thing." The suit replied. "I'm telling you guys, I'll never eat popcorn again."

"Yeah, right." Dean nodded.

~/~\~

Dean was at his computer and Angela sat in the chair across from the desk. Dean accessed the Sandover personnel file for Paul Dunbar. It said his retirement party was supposed to be in two weeks.

"Angela, come over here." Dean said.

She stood up, smoothed out her blue 'Sunmosa' drape neck Ponte dress and walked over. She noticed what Dean had and looked at him.

"Two weeks?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, I know, right?" he muttered.

~/~\~

Sam rolled his chair over to Ian's cubicle. Ian was wearing the yellow shirt for the first time and worked busily.

"Hey." Sam said. "Why would someone kill themselves two weeks before they were supposed to retire? I mean, Paul was two weeks from freedom. He should have been happy, right?"

"I don't have time for this, Sam." Ian replied.

Sam laughed. "That's very funny." Sam noticed Ian's shirt and attitude. "What's with you?"

"I'm working. It's important."

"HR but your balls or something?" Sam asked. "You're wearing the shirt. Did you shave?"

A phone rang.

"Tech support, this is Ian. Be right up." He said. "Gotta go up to twenty-two, speak to a manager."

Ian took off his headset and left.

~/~\~

Angela knocked on Dean's door.

"Mr. Smith?" she asked.

Dean looked up from his computer. "Thank you, Angela." He said, dismissing her. "Hi. Ian, was it? Yeah, come on in. Yesterday you filled out a 445-T and no problem, just a few errors when we did your switch over to Vista. So I'm sure you're used to filling out the dash-R's, am I right?"

"Oh, no." Ian murmured.

"No, no, no. It's fine." Dean assured. "It's fine. I just need you to redo one today so I can get the show on the road with the invoicing."

Dean pushed a paper over the desk and smiled. Ian looked at it, terrified.

"Oh my god." Ian said.

"No, it's fine." Dean replied. "Just refile it and we're square."

"I can't believe I did this."

Dean began to notice something was wrong.

"I can't believe I, I can't believe I did this." Ian mumbled.

"Hey, guy, come on." Dean said.

"No. No. It affected profits. It, I screwed up. I, I can't, I can't, I am so sorry. I, how could I do that? I failed Sandover. I failed the company."

"All right, why don't you sit down, Ian?" Dean suggested.

"No." Ian ran out of the room.

"Ian?" Dean asked. "Ian. Hey." Dean followed him.

Angela frowned from her desk and followed Dean and Ian.

~/~\~

"Mr. Smith?" Angela frowned as she followed him into the bathroom. "Something wrong?"

He looked at her and shrugged slightly. He looked back at Ian. "Ian, hey. Just chill out, man. Okay?"

Ian was staring into a mirror. Dean and Angela's breath was briefly visible. All the faucets came on even though Ian, Dean and Angela were the only ones in the room; all the soap dispensers, too.

Angela looked around, starting to get visibly scared.

"Ian, hey, maybe we should get out of here, huh?" Dean suggested. "Come on. Ian. Look at me."

"Ian, Mr. Smith is right." Angela said. "Come on, I, I can get you two coffees, you can sit down, calm down a bit, yeah?"

Ian turned toward Dean and Angela and pulled a pencil out of his pocket. Ian stared at Dean and Angela for a moment, then stabbed himself in the neck. Angela shrieked and covered her mouth with her hands. She froze with shock. Dean stared at the spout of blood and rushed forward as Ian collapsed. Dean and Angela looked and saw an old man in the mirror, then turned around and no one was there. Ian went still.

Angela tried to compose herself. "Somebody help us!" she screamed.

~/~\~

Angela was still shaken up as she and Dan talked to the officer.

"U-um, no, I, I was worried, so I followed Mr. Smith and Ian into the restroom." She said.

The coroner people rolled a body bag past, again with and audience.

"He was, uh, he was standing there in front of the mirror, and then—Dean started. He saw Sam and stopped.

Angela also noticed Sam and froze.

"Continue." The officer said. "Sir. Ma'am."

"And he stabbed himself in the neck." Angela murmured.

"I'm sorry, that's, um…" Dean started.

~/~\~

A printer whirred and spit out paper. A fax machine whirred and sucked in paper. An automatic pencil sharpener whirred. A phone rang. Sam answered the phone.

"Tech support, this is Sam."

"I need to see you in my office. Now." Dean said.

Sam hung up.

~/~\~

Dean buttoned up a fresh shirt. He looked up at a knock. Angela was sitting on one of the chairs, hands folded on her lap.

"Come on in." Dean said. "Shut the door."

Sam closed the door behind himself.

"Who the hell are you?" Dean asked.

"I'm not sure I know."

"What the hell does that mean?" Angela stood.

"Sam Wesson. I started here three weeks ago."

"All right. You cornered us in the elevator talking about ghosts." Dean replied. "And now…"

"Now what?" Sam asked.

There was a pause.

"Now nothing." Angela cut in. "I, uh… so you started working here three weeks ago, huh?" she asked.

Sam nodded.

"Yeah, us too." Angela said.

Dean unscrewed the top of a bottle.

"It's the Master Cleanse." Dean said. "You tired it?" he asked Sam. "Phenomenal. Detoxes you like nobody's business." Dean drank.

"When you two were in the bathroom with Ian, did you see something?" Sam asked.

"I don't know." Angela said. "I don't know what we saw."

"Wait. Are you saying that, did you two see a ghost?"

"We were freaking out." Dean replied. "The guy penciled his damn neck."

"You did, didn't you?" Sam asked. "Okay, listen. What if these suicides aren't suicides? I mean, what if they're something not natural?"

"So, what, ghosts are real?" Angela asked. "And they're responsible for all the dead bodies around here? Is that what you're telling us?"

Dean, Sam and Angela sat down in unison.

"I know it sounds crazy." Sam said. "But yes. That's what I'm telling you."

"Uh-huh." Dean nodded. "Based on what?"

Sam looked for an answer. "Instinct."

Dean looked down, shaking his head, then back up. Angela looked at her shoes.

"I've got the same instinct." Dean said.

"Me too." Angela murmured.

"Seriously?" Sam asked. "You know those dreams I was telling you about? I was dreaming about ghosts."

"Yeah." Dean said.

"And then it turns out that there's a real ghost." Sam said.

"So you're telling us that your dreams are special visions and you're some kind of psychic?" Angela raised a brow.

"No. I mean, that would be nuts. I'm just saying something weird is definitely going on around here, right? So I've been digging around a little."

Sam pulled papers out of his bag.

"I think I found a connection between the two guys."

Sam passed the papers to Dean and Angela.

"You broke into their email accounts?" Dean asked.

"I used some skills that I happen to have to satisfy my curiosity." Sam shrugged.

"Nice." Angela murmured.

"Yeah. Okay. So it turns out Ian and Paul both got this same email telling them to report to HR, room fourteen forty-four."

"HR's on seven." Dean frowned.

"Exactly." Sam nodded.

"Should we go check this out?" Angela asked.

"Like right now?" Sam asked.

"No. No, it's getting late." She said. "You're right."

"I am dying to check this out right now." Sam said.

"Right?" Dean agreed.

~/~\~

Dean, Sam and Angela were coming down the corridor when they heard a man yelling and hurried to room 1444. It was locked.

~/~\~

Sam kicked the door open.

"Whoa." Dean and Angela said.

A shelf had fallen on the man. Dean, Sam and Angela hurried over to lift it off him. The old man from the bathroom appeared behind Dean and flung him into the wall, then shoved Sam and Angela over. His hands sparked lightning. Angela got up and swung at the old man with a wrench. The old man dissipated before she could touch the man. The monitors shut off and everything stopped shaking. Dean, Sam and Angela lifted the shelves so the man could scoot out from underneath.

"Angela, that was awesome!" Dean laughed.

"How'd you know how to do that?" Sam asked Angela.

"I have no idea." She replied.

A/N: Hey, guys! Hope you liked the chapter! This was super fun to write and we're gonna see Angie in a very different light. As for 4.21 when she snaps at Sam, I think you guys will really like it, I've planned it out and am just working out the kinks. :)

Don't forget to review, review, review! Love y'all.

~Emily