This is my first story, so please be nice. Tell me what you think!
I do not own any of the characters (except for Alex and any other unrecognizable) and I do not own any of the storylines.
Chapter 4: Leavin'
Once they found a motel and an available room, the siblings then went to the local public library to look up any local legends to start their search. Dean was having no luck on the computer searches. He sighed after the last search produced no results.
"Let me try," said Sam.
He tried to grab the mouse, but Dean swatted his hand away. Sam glared at his brother's immaturity and pushed Dean's chair away from the computer. He moved his own in front of the screen as Alex laughed at her brothers' antics. Sam typed in "Female Murder on Centennial Highway" and got no results.
"Wait. Angry spirits are born out of violent death, right?" asked Alex.
"Yeah."
"Then maybe it's not murder."
She plopped herself down onto Sam's lap and typed in "Female Suicide Centennial Highway" and got one result.
"Constance Welch, 24 years old, jumps off the bridge and drowns in the river," read Sam over Alex's shoulder.
"Her kids drowned in the bathtub. That's why she did it."
"That bridge look familiar to you?" asked Dean, pointing to the picture.
Sam looked at it.
"Yep. Good job lil' sis."
Sam hugged her and Dean kissed the top of her head as they left the library.
"So, this is where Constance took a swan dive."
Sam and Dean were at the bridge while Alex remained behind at the motel, hoping to find any trace of their father in the small town.
"You think Dad would've been here?" asked Sam.
"Well, he was chasing this story and we're chasing him."
Dean began walking farther down the bridge and Sam followed.
"Okay, so now what?"
"We keep digging until we find him. It might take a while."
Sam sighed in frustration at his brother's very vague answer.
"Dean, I told you. I've got to get back by-"
"Monday."
Dean finished Sam's sentence. Sam stopped walking and stared at his brother's back.
"Right, the interview. I didn't forget," said Dean.
"Yeah."
Dean turned to his brother then.
"You're really serious about it, aren't you? You think you'll marry your girl?" he asked.
"I don't know, maybe."
Sam simply shrugged his large shoulders.
"Does Jessica know the truth about you? Does she know about the things you've done?" asked Dean.
"No, and she's not ever going to know," answered Sam.
"Well, that's healthy. You can pretend all you want, Sammy, but sooner or later, you'll have to fess up to what you really are."
Dean then turned and began to walk away from his brother.
"And who is that?"
Sam caught up to his brother in three long strides.
"One of us."
"No. I'm not like you and this is not my life," said Sam, planting himself in front of his brother's path.
"This is your responsibility," said Dean.
"To Dad? You know, if it weren't for pictures, Alex and I would never even know what Mom looked like."
Dean stiffened.
"She's gone. She's never coming back."
At Sam's comment, Dean shoved Sam against the bridge.
"Don't talk about her like that."
Dean let him go and they continued walking towards the car. Dean turned around at a loud noise and saw a woman wearing a white dress, standing on the edge of the bridge.
"Sam."
Dean hit Sam's shoulder and Sam turned to look. The woman looked at them and jumped off of the edge of the old wooden bridge. The boys ran to the edge and looked down.
"Where did she go?" asked Dean.
"I don't know."
Suddenly, the Impala's engine started and they both looked up.
"Who's driving your car?" asked Sam, squinting at the brightness of the headlights. Dean pulled the keys out of his jacket pocket and the car lurched toward them.
"Dean, go. Go!" yelled Sam.
He ran behind Dean quickly and they both jumped off of the bridge.
A few minutes later, Sam pulled himself up from the ledge that he was hanging off of and looked down.
"Dean? Dean!"
"What?" answered Dean.
"Hey, are you alright?" asked Sam.
Dean made an OK symbol with his fingers.
"I'm super."
Sam laughed at the sight of his brother covered in mud.
"Car alright?" asked Sam.
They were on the bridge again, inspecting the car for any damage.
"Yeah. Whatever she did to it, it seems fine now. That Constance chick, what a bitch!" yelled Dean into the night, keeping his eyes out for the ghost.
"You smell like a toilet."
Sam wrinkled his nose. Dean glared over at him.
"Let's go see Alex so we can figure out a plan and so that I can shower."
Sam and Dean walked through the door to see Alex wide-awake, eating chips and watching some Lifetime movie. She turned to them and looked Dean up and down, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
"What the hell happened to you?"
Dean ignored her question and walked into the bathroom, locking the door. A few seconds later, Sam and Alex heard the shower start up. Sam smiled and walked over to Alex.
"The spirit was chasing us. We jumped off over the bridge and Dean didn't hold on. He fell in the mud below the bridge."
Alex smirked and Sam sat next to her on the bed, slipping off his shoes. Alex glanced at the TV screen and turned back to Sam.
"Oh, I found Dad's room here. I picked the lock and looked around. He figured it out. Had the same article we had. I figured he already took care of the body, so I wrote down the address of Constance's husband."
Sam smiled.
"You're awesome."
Alex grinned and turned back to the TV. Sam grabbed his cell phone and began checking his voicemail when Dean came out of the bathroom, fully dressed.
"I'm gonna go grab some food. You all want anything?"
He grabbed his favorite leather jacket and slipped it on.
"Nah," said Sam.
"Lex?"
"A cheeseburger."
Dean grabbed his keys off of the table and headed out the door. In the light of the afternoon sun, Dean saw the two police officers from the bridge yesterday outside of the motel, talking to the manager. They saw him and began heading toward him. He took out his cell phone and quickly dialed Sam.
"Hello?"
"Dude, 5-0. Take off. Go find Dad."
He hung up and turned around to face the police officers.
"Problem, officers?"
"Where's your partner?" asked one officer.
"Partner?" asked Dean, faking confusion.
One officer went to check out the room as the other continued talking to Dean.
"Fake U.S. Marshal, huh? Do you have anything that is real?"
"Uh… my boots," replied Dean.
The police officer frowned, handcuffed Dean, and stuck him in the back of his squad car.
"Alex, we gotta go."
Sam hung up his phone and headed for the only window.
"Why? Where's Dean?"
Alex turned off the TV and followed Sam to the window.
"The cops have him."
"Oh, for fucks sake, already?"
Alex rolled her eyes as Sam opened the window and he motioned for Alex to climb through it first. She obliged and Sam followed her down the fire escape to the car.
"So, you want to give us your real name?" asked the police chief, looking into Dean's face.
"I told you already. It's Ted Nugent."
"I'm not sure you realize how much trouble you're in here."
"Like… misdemeanor trouble?" asked Dean.
"Boy, you are officially a suspect."
"Well, that makes sense because when the first victim went missing, I was three."
"I know you got partners. One of em's an older guy. So, tell me, Dean, is this his?"
The chief reached behind him and threw a leather journal onto the table. Dean's smile faded, recognizing it as his father's journal.
"I thought that might be your name. See, I leafed through this. I found this too."
The chief flipped the journal to a page that said "Dean, 35-111."
"Now, you're staying here until you tell me what that means."
Sam knocked on a door that he hoped was Joseph Welch's. An older man answered.
"Hi. Are you Joseph Welch?" asked Sam, squinting in the bright sunlight.
The man nodded and Sam pulled out a picture of John, Dean, and himself.
"Have you seen this man?" asked Sam, pointing to John Winchester.
"Yeah. That guy came by about three days ago, said he was a reporter."
"We're working on a story together," agreed Sam, nodding his head as he put the picture away.
"He asked me where my wife was buried."
Sam nodded once more.
"Mr. Welch, did you ever marry again after Constance?"
The man shook his head, his face sad as he looked back up at Sam.
"No. Constance was the love of my life."
"So, you had a happy marriage."
"Absolutely."
"Well, thanks for your time," said Sam, walking back over to the Impala.
As Sam reached the driver's side door, he paused. He turned back around to speak once more to Mr. Welch.
"Mr. Welch, have you ever heard of a Woman in White?"
Joseph paused.
"You think that has something to do with Constance?"
"You tell me."
"I don't know how many times I have to tell you. It's my high school locker combination," said Dean.
The police chief sighed, exasperated. A young officer peeked his head in the door.
"Excuse me, sir. We just got a 911 call, shots fired."
The chief nodded and handcuffed Dean to the table. The police chief rushed out the door with the rest of the squad and Dean noticed a paperclip in the journal. He managed to grab it and picked the handcuffs open. He grabbed the journal and ran out the door.
"Fake 911 call, Sammy. That's pretty illegal," said Dean, smiling.
He was talking to Sam from a local pay phone located on the side of the road. Sam chuckled through the phone.
"You're welcome. So, the husband was unfaithful. This is a Woman in White."
"Dad left Jericho. I've got his journal."
Sam sighed.
"What's it say? I don't understand what could be so important that Dad skips out on a job."
Alex looked up then and saw a woman wearing an all-white dress standing in the middle of the road.
"Sam, look out!" yelled Alex from the passenger seat.
Sam saw the same woman, but had no time to stop. Alex cringed and closed her eyes as they headed straight for her.
"Whoa!"
Sam dropped his phone on the floor of the car and ran right through Constance, the ghost.
"Sam! Alex!" yelled Dean through the phone, his eyes wide as he waited for a response from his siblings.
"Take me home," said the spirit, who was now in the backseat of the car.
"Listen bitch-" said Alex, turning around to face the ghost.
Suddenly, Alex was flung from the car along with Sam's cell phone.
Alex stood up quickly from the pavement and ran towards the car, pulling on the passenger side door handle. The door wouldn't budge.
"Alex!" yelled Sam, trying to open his door.
'Sammy!"
"I said, take me home," repeated Constance, staring at Sam through the rear-view mirror.
Sam glanced in the rear-view mirror at Constance.
"No."
Constance slightly frowned and used her ghostly abilities to put the car in drive.
Alex watched the car take off down the road and she grabbed Sam's discarded cell phone, holding it up to her ear.
"Dean, Sammy's in the car with that ghost!" yelled Alex, talking to Dean on Sam's cell phone.
"Alright, Lex. I'll give you the address and you head up there. I'll meet you there."
Dean read her the address and hung up, running to the old, abandoned house.
The Impala pulled up to the abandoned house and the headlights shut off.
"I can never go home," whispered Constance, staring at the house with longing.
Sam looked at the house and then at Constance, realization dawning.
"You're scared."
He turned to face her, but she was suddenly gone. He turned back around toward the front and suddenly, she was on top of him. She pushed him so that he was lying down across the front seats with her on top of him.
"You can't kill me. I'm not unfaithful," panted Sam, trying to force her off of him.
Constance leaned down to whisper in Sam's ear.
"But you will be."
She kissed him then, sticking her hand in his chest as she did so.
"Aah!" yelled Sam, trying to escape from her clutches and the pain.
Alex ran into the yard of the abandoned house and saw the Impala. She pulled out her shotgun and shot the driver's side window of the car. Constance didn't move from off of Sam.
"Lex, move!"
Alex ducked and Dean shot the ghost. She disappeared. Sam sat up and started the car.
"I'm taking you home."
He drove the car straight through the house. Dean and Alex ran inside after him.
"Sam?" asked Alex, looking through the rubble.
"I'm here."
Dean opened the passenger door.
"You okay?"
"I think. Help me out."
Alex grabbed his hand and pulled Sam out of the car. They turned to look at the landing of the stairs where the ghost was now standing. She was holding a framed photo of her kids. She threw it aside and pinned the Winchesters to the wall with a sweep of her arm. They struggled against her hold and watched as Constance's children came down the stairs and hugged her.
"We missed you, Mommy," said her ghost children eerily.
Constance screamed and all three of the ghosts disappeared. The Winchesters fell from the wall and slowly stood up, walking over to the Impala.
"If you screwed up my car, I'll kill you," said Dean, inspecting his beloved car.
Sam rolled his eyes and Alex laughed.
"Okay, Dad went to Blackwater Ridge, Colorado," said Sam.
They were in the car the next day, heading back to Stanford to drop off Sam.
"How far?" asked Alex.
"About six hundred miles."
"We could make it by morning," said Dean, stepping on the accelerator.
"Dean, I-" began Sam.
"You're not going?" asked Alex.
"My interview's in, like, ten hours. I've got to be there."
"Yeah. I'll take you home," said Dean.
A few hours later, Dean pulled up to Sam's apartment that he shared with Jessica.
"Call me if you find him," said Sam.
"Alright," said Dean.
"See you, sis."
Sam patted the top of the car and Dean revved the engine. Alex blew Sam a kiss and climbed into the front seat beside Dean. Sam watched as they drove away. Sam trudged up the stairs to his apartment, unlocked the door to his apartment, and walked inside.
"Jess? You home?" he called out.
He walked to the kitchen and saw a plate of chocolate chip cookies on the table. He grabbed one and took a bite, climbing up the stairs. He entered the bedroom, threw his stuff on the floor, and lay on the bed. He finished the cookie and closed his eyes, sighing. He then felt something drip onto his forehead and he opened his eyes, looking up. He sat up in horror as he saw Jessica pinned to the ceiling, blood dripping from the gash on her stomach.
"No!" yelled Sam as Jessica burst into flames.
Suddenly, Dean burst through the bedroom door.
"Sam! Sam!"
He ran to the bed, grabbed Sam, and pushed him out of the door and down the stairs.
The firemen were outside of the apartment about an hour later and Dean was watching the small crowd that had appeared. He walked back over to the car where Alex and Sam were standing with the trunk open. Sam finished loading a gun and he threw it into the trunk. He pulled Alex close to his side and looked over at Dean.
"We've got work to do."
Sam shut the trunk and followed his brother and sister to the car, watching the firemen until they were little specks in the distance.