Jacob's guess turned out to be spot on. By the time they pulled into the little town again, they'd just missed the meager rush hour traffic of most of the residents returning home. There was a lot more room to park the Impala near the building that apparently housed tiny folk like Sam and Dean despite having very little food access.

With Sam as a stealthy lookout and Chase and Dean hidden away in his pocket, Jacob once again strolled as casually as a 6'5" teenager could towards the building. Dean had always said that if he walked like he knew exactly where he was going, no one would ever bother him.

It still amazed him when it actually worked. None of the few stragglers leaving the building at the end of their workdays thought twice about him passing them to go back into the building.

By the time he returned to the same stairwell from before, he had a proud smirk teasing at his expression. "That was easier than I thought. Who knows, maybe the janitor won't even notice I'm in here."

From within the pocket, Chase had to assume no one was around for Jacob to be talking to them. Surrounded by thick, warm cloth that swayed with every enormous step, he couldn't see for himself. All he saw was whatever pinpricks of light fought their way through the weave of fabric. He remained at the bottom and out of sight but called up "Just don't get us all locked inside the building!"

"That's me an' Sam's specialty," Dean declared from where he was standing next to Chase. He pushed up the edge of the pocket flap just enough to be able to peer out and see their surroundings. "We can get into or out of anything they've got in this building, just you wait."

The deserted stairwell he could see through the tiny opening was a good sign for their investigation going unnoticed, and Dean called up "Sam, how we lookin' up there?"

Sam crouched down on Jacob's shoulder so he could peer down at where the others were. "No one's around," he called down in a hush. Sitting on Jacob's shoulder like he was, he didn't even get the tell-tale feeling of being watched from their own human, and Chase was out of sight as well. That made his ability invaluable in keeping Jacob out of trouble. At the first sign of a burn on his neck, an elbow would jab into Jacob and the younger hunter would know what to do.

Jacob kept himself aware of Sam's movements right near his neck, nodding to himself with the assurance that no one could see him creeping around the building after hours. Considering a death had occurred on the top floor, no one was very concerned with the security of the place. That, or no one expected someone like Jacob to actually try sneaking around. His size might remove that kind of suspicion altogether.

He made his way up the stairs again, and he felt the tiniest weight shifting in his pocket. Chase scrambled up to see out of the pocket like before. This time, he managed to climb up and throw his tiny arms over the edge without Dean hauling him up, though he let out a huff of exertion once he did.

"So ... guy gets killed in a locked room, and we're thinking my buddies in the Chinese-speaking club might know what happened," he recalled, trying to keep himself on the same page as the others. A single glance to the steps below was all it took to prompt him to grip the pocket fabric. Enormous boots continued on, so far below.

Jacob glanced down. "Yeah. They're the only ones who might have seen something, since they were hiding in all the junk up there." Jacob still wondered how they hadn't learned any English, or how they might have immigrated in the first place, but Sam and Dean had already proven that size wasn't as much of an inhibitor as it might seem.

Hopefully they'd get some answers soon. He even held onto the possibility that Chase could convince them that they didn't need to run from him, giant or not. He was ever hopeful to earn trust from even the smallest of people.

Dean frowned as he mentally mapped out their job. "Once we get in there, you'll have to find somewhere else to hang for a bit," he called up to Jacob, peering at the teen's chin. From their vantage in the pocket, his chin formed a ceiling over their heads. "We can't risk them running off again if we get them talking. We'll come to you if we need you."

"Too bad there aren't any cell phones our size," Sam added. "There's no good way to get Jacob's attention without going to find him."

Jacob hummed thoughtfully, mulling over ideas as he made his way up the stairs. He doubted there would be access to a phone in the abandoned office that was any easier than just coming to get him. They'd have to find it first, and with all the clutter in there, that could be a tall order even with Dean's knack for seeking things out.

He sometimes wished he knew how to make things like this easier on the brothers, but he couldn't without being patronizing or taking away their freedom to figure stuff out on their own. "I'll just go down to the floor just below," he suggested. "There ought to be a way to get my attention, right?" Even as he spoke, he reached the top of the stairs and put his hand on the doorknob. It was still unlocked from his earlier break-in.

"Could use ceiling access, maybe?" Chase chimed in. His voice was uncertain, but thoughtful. "Up where the fire sprinklers and stuff are all routed around?" He decided to leave out that he'd gotten the idea from a spy movie.

Somehow, some way, Chase had wound up in this situation for real. It wasn't a movie, and it wasn't special effects. Jacob really was a giant to him now, with giant hands and giant boots and giant lungs that drew in enough air to fill a hot air balloon.

"We'll figure something out," Dean said as he surveyed the walls around them, taking advantage of the time they had in the pocket to assess what they had to work with. Though the office building was built a lot different compared to the motel where they'd made their home in before, and was nothing close to how Jacob's family house was designed, there were always a few key components that were the same across the board.

Sam was thinking along the same lines, even as he held tight to Jacob's collar for balance. The walk up the stairs had been precarious for the tiny hunter sitting on a shoulder, and he could feel himself relaxing now that it was over. Sam pointed at the wall next to the door. "There's ventilation shafts that go through every part of the building," he said. "We can slip right in, and from there we can find our way back to Jacob. Worst comes to worst, we use my line to climb down from the ceiling to him."

"Whatever you do, I'll be chilling just one floor down. All the lights were off in there so I should be able to get in and just lay low there," Jacob determined. He didn't like that he'd have to sit out while the others went snooping around for other small folk, especially with a murderous ghost around, but he couldn't stop them. He didn't have any ground to stand on, with the way he scared off the little witnesses earlier.

He would just have to trust that they'd be able to get to him if trouble arose. They knew when to get out if the situation got hot.

He slowly knelt down in the main hallway of the cluttered place, with broken furniture and dusty antiques stacked all around him. Once he was steady, he lifted a hand to the pocket for Dean and Chase.

"Jacob can lay low?" Chase quipped. He reached away from the edge of the pocket to try to get a grip on Jacob's hand, but he didn't have the right leverage for it.

"I do well enough," Jacob defended with a smirk. "I've got these ninjas teaching me."

"You've definitely improved," Dean said dryly. "That first week we met you, we could hear you coming when you weren't even in the room." That thought reminded him of that first day, climbing down a table, Sam already dashing for the dresser while a huge door swung open. Back then, neither of them could have imagined how that trip would end.

Now, Jacob was a part of their team, just as integral as either brother. They continued to work at teaching him everything they could, including what stealth skills they could impress on him.

Being longer of body compared to Chase, Dean didn't have a problem reaching Jacob's hand, and scrambled up out of the pocket with his duffel slung over a shoulder. Once up there, he offered the other teen a hand and hauled him effortlessly out so they stood side by side on Jacob's hand. Chase fumbled for his balance, momentarily clinging to Dean's arm. He had yet to get the hang of avoiding a glance to the floor, and even half a second was enough for it to telescope below him.

While the others were messing around in the pocket, Sam took the initiative to climb down Jacob's other arm while it rested casually by his side.

Jacob kept his attention on both hands, especially as he felt Sam's weight climbing lower and lower on his sleeve. With a slow motion, he leaned just enough to plant that hand on the ground so Sam didn't need to think about jumping down to the floor. At the same time, he ferried Dean and Chase down to join him.

Chase stepped off the hand eagerly, unable to hide how relieved he was for solid ground, and peered around critically. The old cabinets and furniture all had layers of dust on them, from sitting so long in someone's attic before coming here to sit for even more time. At least the dust particles were probably too big to be nearly as much of a bother for him as they normally would be. As before in Jacob's room, the furniture stretched overhead and drew attention just by existing larger than life.

He was practically bouncing on his heels, from excitement and nerves both. They were there, right where a case was unfolding. He could see the yellow X of police tape over the door at the end of the hall. Chase was excited to be a part of the team. He refused to let them down. "Definitely has the atmosphere for some ghostly shit," he mused.

Jacob noted his excitement and tried to hide a smirk. If he'd known Chase would be so quick to like what they did, he might have suggested joining them on cases sooner.

Then again, Jacob thought about the close calls they'd had on the few cases they'd closed so far. He found himself silently praying his friend wouldn't have to deal with something like that on his first time out. His first time being small. He knew what it was like to suddenly shrink. As casual as he was acting, Chase wasn't used to it yet.

"Yeah, I guess," he replied. "Try to take it easy, though, dude."

Dean clapped a hand on Chase's shoulder. "We'll keep a close watch on our new pint-size translator," he chuckled while Sam came up to join them. His smirk stayed on his face when Sam sent him a bitchy glare at the nickname. "What? Should I call him the half-pint decoder instead?" He laughed and dodged a whack from Sam.

Sam straightened his satchel on his side when Dean ducked behind Chase. "Quit fooling around already," he grumbled, brushing off the leather. "Everyone ready to go?"

"I'm always ready," Dean declared, stepping out from behind Chase.

Jacob sat back once they were all together in one spot on the floor. He didn't bother hiding the amusement on his face at this point, and something about Dean hiding behind someone almost a head shorter than himself was too amusing to forget. "Well, if you guys are ready, that just leaves me, I guess," he remarked.

With that, he pushed himself back to his feet, carrying his considerable bulk straight up to tower over everything around him. He was quick to step backwards so he didn't loom so completely over his friends, and he noticed Chase taking a sheepish step back as well.

"I'll be downstairs if you need me," he said uncertainly, before backing off further and heading out the door once more. He couldn't delay their investigating for his own concerns. They could handle themselves just fine.


Chase let out a sigh once Jacob's heavy footsteps retreated back down the stairs just beyond the door. The sight of Jacob standing at full height made his stomach clench, even knowing it was just his best friend standing there. Jacob always tried to be careful and carry himself in a non-threatening way, but even that couldn't hide the fact that he was big. Loyalty went a long way to keep Chase from wanting to bolt like a rabbit again, and in fact that instinct was properly restrained in a corner of his mind.

Chase shook it off. "Alright, always ready, where to first?" he quipped, smirking up at Dean.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Where do you think, smartass?" he shot back without missing a beat, taking point for the group. Sam would bring up the rear, putting his knack to good use while they were out in the open and keeping a close eye on Chase from there.

Pointing towards the dusty piles of boxes and antiques, Dean explained. "The last place we saw them was in the piles of boxes. It's our best bet to start, and we'll branch out from there. Hopefully, with Jacob out of the picture, they'll reappear. I really think we were getting somewhere last time with the journal."

"At least the journal's in one piece," Sam murmured as his hand strayed protectively to his bag. It was the only one of its kind he'd ever seen, and he didn't want to risk it. He already had to write in the margins and use up every millimeter of space so he didn't risk running out of blank pages. With Dean's shenanigans, he was going to be left without a journal inside of the year.

Chase cast his gaze all around as they walked. His eyes were wide with awe and a small amount of trepidation as he thought about how far away that ceiling was. Even Jacob might have to stand on his tiptoes to reach it. Buildings like this had higher ceilings than houses.

Before they stepped into the shadows between the boxes stacked nearby, Chase caught sight of a cobweb high up. He shuddered and ducked out of sight so he wouldn't have to think about what had built that web.

We're not on our own up here. Sam and Dean have totally got this, he told himself. Cardboard boxes loomed around them, tall cliffs of material that should be familiar but just weren't at this scale. Thick dust and fibers clung like moss to the sheer cliffs, forming a texture more akin to filthy stone than cardboard.

"So ... why do you think they would be hanging around here, anyway? Especially with no one around to bring in lunches or anything. Seems odd," he mused aloud, if nothing else than to give him something to think about.

"We don't know," Sam said, his voice a hush as he brought up the rear of their group. "It's part of what we'd like to ask them, if we get the chance."

The dusty cardboard boxes formed dark cliffs overhead as they ventured deeper between them. Sam found his hand straying to his knife out of habit, much like he would hold it at the ready whenever they traveled to unknown areas of the motel and Bobby's house. He hadn't had much time to explore Jacob's family home yet, but it would be much the same, and he imagined that Dean had kept his knife at the ready in a completely unknown place.

"If they were living off the people who worked here," Sam continued on, "normally, they'd have to find a new place to live after something like this happened. Even if it was only temporary."

"Unless there's something we're missing," Dean called back from where he was waiting by an intersection of the boxes. He peered around, his pupils wide in the darkness so he could see. "Some place to get food we haven't seen, a reason for them to risk staying here… It could be anything, and we need to find out what."

Chase nodded and peered around more as if the people in question might pop out at them at any time. The shadows stretched far there, though it wasn't as completely dark as the walls. He still couldn't see more than several inches in front of himself, but several inches was more than enough at his size.

"I'll just have to ask them," he muttered. His shoes, though they weren't as heavy or sturdy as Sam and Dean's rat-leather boots, scraped over the occasional speck of dust. Dust is like gravel now, he thought to himself, Holy shit.

Some seconds of cautious silence passed them by, with the building settling around them, when Chase's ears pricked. The sound of paper rustling faintly reached his ears from a path to the right of their crossroads. He watched the dark with wide eyes, but couldn't see movement yet.

"What is that?" he asked, his confusion leaking into his voice.


A/N:

Chase is so ready to do his part!

Next: June 14th, 2023 at 9PM


Adding in this author's note for all my followers here, and will keep it on all chapters going forward:

If the worst happens and fanfiction shuts down, you can find all my stories on both archive of our own and deviantart, posted under the nightmares06 account. You can also find our story tumblr, which contains a ton of information and answers that are only posted on that site, along with artwork for the stories and future plans we have. That can be found under the brothersapart tumblr account. I can't put links in chapters, but googling "Brothersapart tumblr" should bring it right up!