July 17, 2012

Stanford University

"Hi, I'm special agent Brian Young," Dean said as he rose his 'FBI' badge. "This is my partner, Samuel Davids. We are here to investigate the recent death of one of your students. A Mariah Murrey?"

The security guard at the check point was, needless to say, shocked. After all, it isn't everyday that the FBI investigates a suicide, much less the suicide of a student. The fifty some year old man scratched his dark gray hair and said, "Yes, sir. I do have to say, though. I'm surprised that you are here..."

Sam stepped forward and gave a small smile. "Yes, I can understand that. We don't normally do this. However, Ms. Murrey was a personal friend of our supervisor's son. He asked us to take a look into it to make sure that there wasn't any foul play. I'm sure you can understand that."

The security officer with the name tag Kevin nodded. "Yes, sir. I can understand that perfectly. Did you call the head of security before you arrived? If you haven't, I need to contact him so this can be put in the books."

"We would rather if you didn't do that," Dean said as he put on his best smile. "We -"

"We are doing this under the table, Kevin," Sam said. "The FBI doesn't even know we are here. We are doing this as a personal favor to our boss and his son. If you want, you can take our guns. We only ask that you don't record this. Both my partner and I could get into a lot of trouble if you do."

Kevin looked at Sam suspiciously before he said, "That is a mighty odd request, sir."

Sam smiled as he said, "Please. Call me Sam. No formalities here, Kevin. Let's just say that, if you do this, my partner and I will owe you one. Plus, no one needs to know. If anyone asks, you can blame it all on us, saying that we forced you. But, it's up to you. I would be forever grateful if you did decide to help us, though."

It took Kevin several minutes to debate what was put before him. Who could blame him? What Sam and Dean (or Brian Young, as he introduced himself) requested the guard to do was something that could put his career on the line. But, if it is done under the table, and if the FBI is asking you nicely without forcing you to... Who could say no? Certainly not Kevin. Not right now. Not with Sam pulling his killer puppy dog eyed look.

"Alright," Kevin said after several moments of debate. "But, just so we are clear, if anyone asks, you forced me to. Understand?"

Sam nodded. "Understood. Thank you."

"Yeah..." Kevin said. "Here, Mariah's dorm room is this way. Well.. Was this way..."

As they traversed across campus to get to Mariah's dorm room, Sam exchanged small talk with Kevin: What the weather was like where Sam came from. Schooling, life events, etc. It was a perfectly dull and boring conversation. Of course, Dean was bored out of his skull. However, Sam was actually enjoying the small talk with the friendly security guard. And then, he realized something that made him very glad he went by his real name, and not "Phil Johnson" or "Malcolm Tyler."

"Hey, wait a minute," Kevin said as he stopped and stared at Sam. "Don't I know you?"

"Me?" Sam asked, baffled.

"Yeah... Yeah, I do know you. I thought I recognized you! You are the Winchester boy, aren't you. Sam Winchester; the law student, right? You were dating Jessica Moore."

Sam gave a grimace of a smile before he said, "Yeah... yeah, that's me."

"Ha! I wondered what happened to you. Damn, you have grown up to be a fine young man, haven't you? Went and joined the FBI and everything, huh?"

"Yeah," Sam nodded slowly. "After Jess' death, I just didn't want to do law anymore. Decided to do something to help catch bad guys and the like. I'm surprised you recognized me."

Kevin laughed before he said, "It took me a while, but after you work security for twenty some years, you start to remember faces."

"Yeah, I bet."

"Wait, didn't you introduce yourself as Samuel Davids?" Kevin asked.

"Very sharp of you," Sam said. "David is my middle name. I decided to go by Samuel Davids instead of Winchester to leave behind my past. Weird, I know – "

"Nah, I understand."

Dean looked at his brother before he gave a sigh of relief. Dean thought for sure that he was going to have to karate chop this awesome security guard to unconsciousness because of hearing something on the news or what-have-you. That would have put Dean in all sorts of bad moods.

Several more minutes passed before they got to Mariah's dorm. During those minutes, Dean learned much more about this guard than he would have liked. For instance, he has been married three times, has seven children, five grandchildren, loves soccer, hates baseball, and plays bingo every Saturday night with his wife's mother. Sam was entertaining this older man (and was enjoying it, for some strange reason), but Dean was about ready to scoop his eardrums out. It wasn't that he didn't like Kevin: Under normal situations, he would be joining in the small talk. However, Dean just wanted to go in, find what they needed, and get out. No ands, ifs, or buts. Being on a campus (and a rather large campus) makes every instinct the older Winchester has stand on end.

"Here we are," Kevin said. "Room number 18. This is where Mariah lived. Everything is still left untouched. Well, mostly untouched. We are trying to find some next of kin to take her belongings but haven't had any luck as of yet. And, I don't think we will."

Sam nodded. "Thank you, Kevin. You want to wait out here?"

"If you don't mind. I really don't want to go in there... that room makes me all sorts of uneasy."

"What kind of uneasy?" Dean asked, interest perked. "Cold spots? Hair standing on end?"

Kevin gave Dean a 'what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about' look before he said, "No. I just feel sadness. Complete and utter sorrow. Makes me want to just run away and not look back."

The Winchester brothers looked at each other before they thanked Kevin once again and went into the room. The second the door closed, Dean pulled out his EMF reader and said, "Let's get this done and over with so we can get the Hell out of dodge."

Completely ignoring his brother, Sam approached Mariah's desk and looked over everything. Nothing was truly abnormal: Some books about science related topics, information about complicated human body parts. Things that were normal for a nursing major.

The books that caught Sam's eye, however, were the ones about overcoming depression. There were several of them from various authors, which confirmed something Sam was thinking about the whole ride here to Stanford: The depression that Mariah was facing had intensified since he last saw her. Back when Sam and Mariah were classmates, there were several times that he noticed that the depression was starting to get to be to much to handle. But, usually when days like that happened, Mariah talked to Jess about it. Jess even told Sam that she was getting better and, in a few years, would be a completely different person.

But now, Jess is gone... Sam thought.

The youngest Winchester frowned and sighed. "Looks like Mariah was having a lot of problems with depression."

Dean nodded in acknowledgment and continued his sweep of the room. After a few more moments, Dean scowled at the EMF reader as he said, "No EMF readings. Room's clean."

"Take a look at the window sill and all that, Dean. Check to see if a demon popped in or something."

"Yeah, dude. I know the drill. You don't need to micromanage me," Dean said with a stern, yet gentle tone. "Nothing over here."

Sam sat down on the futon in the middle of the room. "This makes no sense, Dean. I don't understand why she would just kill herself."

"Maybe she just couldn't take it anymore," Dean said.

Sam shook his head in disagreement. "No. No, Mariah wouldn't do that. She was an atheist and she knew that this life was the only one she would ever have. She told me, and Jess, on countless occasions that she would never do anything like that because it was pointless and illogical."

Dean sighed as he walked over to join his brother on the futon. "Yeah. But, you know, that was how many years ago? Seven? Eight? People change, Sam. If she wasn't getting the help she needed like she needed..."

The youngest Winchester leaned forward and rested his head on his hands. Why was he so upset about this? Sam couldn't figure it out. After all, Sam didn't know Mariah like Jess did. Sure, he was close enough to her to call Mariah a friend, but still. Why was he so upset about it?

"God, I don't understand. I don't fucking understand it, Dean. It doesn't make any sense. None of it does... It just seems so... pointless."

Within moments, Dean noticed that Sam changed. He went from dead set on figuring out what happened to Mariah, to a withering and lifeless form. Dean didn't understand it; it made no sense. And then Dean felt it. He felt it like a wave crashing against his body: Desperation, hopelessness, despondency. Above anything else, complete and total sorrow.

"Sam, we need to go," Dean said with a flat tone.

The youngest Winchester looked at Dean and asked, "Why? What is it?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's something bad. Something bad and powerful."