(S1EP16 - Shadow)
"All right, Dean. This is the place." Sam told his brother as they proceeded towards the apartment of a potential supernatural victim. She'd been killed a week ago, but when her body had been found a few days later, the police had been surprised to find her windows locked, and the chain still on the door. The alarm was on the entire time, so no human could've done this without getting spotted. No human...
"You know, I've gotta say dad and me did just fine without these stupid costumes." Dean complained, dressed as an employee of the alarm company with his name written on his uniform. Sam didn't seem to mind having to dress up like that, but he couldn't just let it go so easily. "I feel like a high school drama dork." The eldest smiled at the memories he had of his brother. "What was that play that you did? What was it...'Our Town'. Yeah, you were good, it was cute."
"Look, you wanna pull this off or not?"
"I'm just saying, these outfits cost hard-earned money, okay?"
"Whose?"
"Ours. You think credit card fraud is easy?"
Sam rolled his eyes, wishing his best friend could be there right now. Dean wouldn't complain that much if she was really there with them, but she was currently at the police station, trying to gather as much informations as she could on the case. The youngest Winchester suspected his brother to be in such a bad mood because he hadn't been able to see Alina in her police officer uniform before she'd left the room. Sam was to blame for that. He just didn't want the two hunters to get all distracted again by each other while they had to focus on this new case.
"You think she'll be fine?" Dean asked right before entering the building.
"It's Alina. I'm more concerned for the real police."
They shared an amused smile and joined the landlady inside. She gave them access to the apartment now that the police was done with the place, and told them about how she'd been the one finding Meredith's body. Her work had called after she'd missed a few days, and after knocking on the door to check up on her, the landlady had noticed the smell.
They already knew about the apartment being entirely locked from the inside when Meredith had been found, but there was another problem now. Nothing was damaged here. No overturned or broken furnitures, no signs of struggle. But the body was in pieces, like she'd been killed by a wild animal.
The moment the brothers were left alone in the apartment, Dean opened the toolbox he was carrying with him and grabbed the EMF Meter. "So, a killer walks in and out of the apartment. No weapons, no prints, nothing."
"I'm telling you, the minute I found that article, I knew this was our kind of gig."
The EMF Meter started to beep frantically at the same time, proving that something unusual had happened here. "I think I agree with you." Dean pointed out, almost jumping when he heard the keys in the front door once again. He put his EMF Meter behind his back, sharing a frown with Sam. The landlady had agreed to let them look around, why would she be back already.
"Here officer."
"Well we're sorry for bothering you again."
The hunters sighed in relief when they recognized Alina's voice in the entrance, talking with the landlady in her serious and professional tone.
"Oh it's no problem. Just find the whack job responsible for this, alright?"
"Sure ma'am." Alina smiled at the woman and entered the place. Even when she heard the door closing behind her, she stayed in character once she found the boys in the living room. Her grin widened at the sight of Dean in his uniform, but she didn't want to give him the pleasure of getting flustered so easily. She kept her firm look, with her hands on her waist. "Hi, I'm officer Johnson, I was sent here to make sure you two idjits don't temper with our crime scene."
Dean smiled, amazed by how hot the hunter looked in this uniform. Her hair were tied into a bun covered with the usual police hat, making her look even more intimidating and attractive. "I think I've already dreamt of that scene..." Dean said in awe, making his brother sigh once again and turn to his best friend with more professionalism.
"That was fast. Did you get anything from the cops?"
"Yeah. And it's actually scary how easy it is to impersonate an officer of the law in this country." Alina joked, took off her hat to put it on the table and free her hair from the torturous bun. Seeing her hair fall on her shoulders so quickly, made Dean's body temperature rise. Why did her hair have to be such a turn on for him?
"Well there is one interesting detail they're insisting on keeping out of the papers. Meredith's heart was missing."
"Her heart?" The brothers repeated in chorus, stunned by that new information. Dean finally got his serious back once he realized how suspicious this case was starting to look.
"Yeah. What about you guys? Found anything useful here?"
"Well the EMF's definitely acting up." Dean said, putting it back inside the toolbox. "And according to the landlady, it looked like an animal attack." Alina followed his gaze to the carpet at her feet, covered in multiple bloodstains. "Maybe it was...werewolf?"
"No, no werewolf, the lunar cycle's not right." Sam was getting even more intrigued by this. "Plus, if it was a creature, it would've left some kind of trace. It's probably a spirit. Alina do you feel anything here?"
His best friend came standing next to him in the middle of the room, checked her surroundings for a few seconds, then tilted her head at the familiar, and yet really unfamiliar feeling she was getting from the place. "I'm not sure..." What was that feeling? What was she getting? That was weird.
"See if you can find any masking tape around." Dean asked them, observing the blood on the carpet as if he was now seeing something the other two couldn't.
Once they got the tape from one of the drawers, Sam and Alina watched Dean as he was using it to connect each stain of blood. The young woman was impressed by his work, but not surprised. He was good at his job. And once he was done, the connected pieces of tape formed a strange symbol on the carpet.
"Ever see that symbol before?" Sam asked, also impressed by what his brother had done.
"Never."
"Me neither."
The brothers turned to Alina, staring at the symbol with her head starting to ache. She'd seen it before. She definitely had. But where? And when? It was so frustrating since the symbol was indeed somewhere in her mind.
Something was wrong about this case. And although Alina was starting to wish they'd never set a foot here in the first place, she just didn't know why she was feeling so uneasy.
LATER
Sam entered the local bar where Meredith used to work. Dean and Alina were supposedly already there to get informations from the victim's coworkers, but it didn't take too long for the hunter to see his brother flirting with the attractive bartender, while Alina was sitting at a table a little further away, going through her mom's journal. Sam joined her quickly. "Well I've got nothing on that symbol. What are you doing?"
She eventually lifted her head, as if she was noticing his presence just now. "I don't know, I feel like I've already seen it somewhere, so I'm searching for anything in there that could trigger my memories."
"And?"
"And..." Alina gave the journal one last look before closing it with a sigh. "Nothing. Maybe I'll remember if I stop focusing on this so much." She took a sip of her beer.
Sam smiled at her, until he once again saw his brother with the bartender and frowned. "How does this not bother you?"
Alina followed his gaze, noticing Dean and the beautiful young woman behind the bar, and chuckled at the sight. "Because he's not trying to make me jealous."
"He's literally flirting with another woman. Right in front of you." Sam was tempted to go get his brother and teach him a lesson on how to treat his best friend properly. But the fact that even Alina didn't seem to mind his behavior, slightly calmed him down.
"Yeah but it's just because she's his type." Alina said nonchalantly before finishing her beer.
"Okay...so?"
"Well if she's his type, he knows she's also my type. I guess he just convinced himself that we are in some kind of competition. And that's just adorable."
The youngest Winchester was astonished by her logic. She was definitely made for Dean. And she kept smiling when the eldest came back and sat at the table with them. "I talked to the bartender."
"Did you get anything?" Sam asked quickly. "Besides her number?"
Dean faked a shocked expression as he looked between him and Alina. "Dude, I'm a professional. I'm offended that you would think that." But the knowing looks the two hunters were giving him, made him chuckle and hold up a napkin with the bartender's phone number on it. "All right, yeah."
He looked like a proud kid, and that made Alina's grin widen when she turned to her best friend. "See? I told you he was adorable." And just as Dean was about to ask her what she meant by that, the young woman grabbed a napkin in the pocket of her jacket, and proudly showed them the exact same phone number written on it.
"Every goddamn time!" Dean let out in frustration, throwing his own napkin on the table. "How did you...when?!"
"You shouldn't have gone to the bathroom the second we got here."
"I've been talking to her for five minutes!"
"And it took me less than one to get that number, Winchester."
Dean rolled his eyes and looked away, annoyed by his defeat while his brother was starting to smile again. So that's why Alina wasn't worried in the first place, she'd planned this.
The hunter slowly got her chair closer to Dean's with a mischievous look on her face. "Well it's a shame that you're choosing to react this way, because I really wanted to show you the costume I bought when I returned the uniforms earlier."
Dean instantly forgot about the number and turned to Alina, dying to know what costume she was talking about. He was already picturing her as a hot nurse, or...something with even less fabric... "A number? What number?" He eagerly laughed and pushed the two napkins away from them. "You know I'm gonna need a clue now."
Alina shook her head in amusement, until Sam decided to clear his throat in front of them to get their attention back to the case. "You guys mind doing a little bit of thinking with your upstairs brains?"
"Huh?" Dean was still giggling like an idiot, but completely stopped when he met his brother's serious gaze. Of course he'd ruin that moment too. "Look, there's nothing to find out. I mean, Meredith worked here, she waited tables, everyone here was her friend. Everybody said she was normal. She didn't do or say anything weird before she died, so...what about that symbol, you find anything?"
Alina's smile also dropped when she was once again reminded of that symbol.
"Nope, nothing. It wasn't in dad's journal or in any of the usual books. I just have to dig a little deeper, I guess."
Alina wished she could prevent all this hard work from simply remembering where she'd seen that stupid symbol! Why was it so hard to remember?!
"Well, there was a first victim, right? Before Meredith?" Dean tried to change the subject when he noticed how troubled Alina seemed to be about this.
"Right. Yeah." Sam pulled out a newspaper clipping about a man, Ben Swardstrom, found mutilated in his town house a month ago. Just like in Meredith's case, the door and windows were locked, and the alarm was still on.
"Is there any connection between the two of them?"
Alina shook her head, since she'd also studied the case with Sam. "Apart from their gruesome deaths, we couldn't find any other connection. Yet."
"Yeah...Ben was a banker, Meredith was a waitress. They never met, never knew anyone in common...they were practically from different wor..."
Sam was interrupted by Alina's phone as it started to ring in her jacket. She pulled it out, and almost immediately sighed at the caller ID, which gave Dean a huge clue on who it could be.
"Let me guess...Elias?" He didn't even sound jealous anymore when he said his name. He was even satisfied by how annoyed Alina looked every time she had to take a call from him.
"That's the fifth time ever since I got my memories back. There's nothing more to do now, I'm fine, why does he keep calling?"
"He's just worried about you." Sam tried to comfort his best friend. He knew she hated to lie about her quick and mysterious recovery, but she couldn't tell him or Marcus about her Empathy. She couldn't take that risk.
"I know that, it's just...I think he's starting to get suspicious. And I would too if I was him, I'm used to lying to strangers, but it's still so hard to hide things from the people I know. I hate this." She looked at her phone, still ringing in her hand. Elias wasn't about to give up so easily...
"Hey?" Dean softly put a strand of the girl's hair behind her ear. "If you need me to come with you..."
"No it's fine." She smiled at him and stood up from her chair. "You stay here, I'll just try to be quick." She put a tender kiss on his lips, already feeling a little better when she felt his smile against hers, then left to go take the call outside the noisy bar.
Dean watched her walking away, unable to get the stupid smile off his face. She was just too amazing. Sam suddenly made him turn back to him when he chuckled at his big brother's behavior.
"What's so funny, Sammy?"
"I just never thought I'd see you acting like that"
Dean simply gave his brother an interrogating look since he had no idea what he was talking about. And that actually made Sam laugh even more.
"Dude, you were giggling just a few seconds ago."
"What?" Dean's firm expression instantly came back at his brother's words. "I wasn't giggling."
"You were."
"I wasn't!"
Sam tried to hide his smile, checking his surroundings to look at anything else but his brother. That's when he saw a familiar figure a little further away. The back of a young woman with short blond hair, sitting alone at a table. Was that...
At the same time, outside the bar, Alina took one last deep breath and closed her eyes before finally answering the phone with a fake smile. "Hey Elias, what's up?"
"Hey!" The young man sounded surprised. Probably because he'd been waiting for so long now, he wasn't even expecting her to pick up anymore. "I...Am I bothering you?"
"No!" Alina lied quickly, wishing she didn't have to. At least she could tell some truth. "But you know...we're actually working on a new case right now so I'll probably be a little busy for the next days."
"Oh. Okay. Well I just wanted to make sure...how are you feeling?"
The hunter heard her friend hesitating on the other side of the phone. There clearly was something on his mind, and she definitely didn't want him to continue.
"Look Elias, I get it. You feel responsible for what happened to me, but you really shouldn't. I'm fine, that's all that matters."
"No but that's the thing Alina...I can't stop thinking about it. Ever since I found Eva...she told me you had no way of breaking that spell so quickly. What if your recovery is only temporary?"
"Elias..."
"I'm not saying that I trust Eva more than your friend Lucie, but she's the one who cast that spell and she re ally thinks there could be something wrong with you. I've also been thinking about that time you fell unconscious in my dad's shop and..."
"Stop!" Alina's heart was beating so fast. She was scared that her friend would eventually find something if he just kept digging like that, and she couldn't let him do that. "Listen...you're right. I'm hiding something from you, but trust me, it's for your own good."
"What are you talking about? Alina I'm your friend, you know you could tell me anything."
"But I don't have to." She felt terrible about the way she had to sound so harsh with him. She just didn't have any other choice. "Elias, we've known each other since we were kids, and we've been through a lot together. But...I've changed. I'm not the same Alina you used to know, and you're not the Elias I used to know. And that's okay. That's called growing up."
Alina thought she'd feel bad telling him this, but she didn't. And she couldn't stop anymore.
"I wasn't even planning on bringing Dean and Sam into this mess, but they've been there for me even when I tried to push them away. They saw the new me, and they made me accept it. So I know I could tell you anything, but honestly I don't need to. I'm not worried for myself as long as I'm with them, and neither should you."
The young woman smiled, relieved that this weight had finally been taken off her shoulders. She didn't have to lie to Elias, because she didn't have to tell him anything.
"Stop calling to make sure that I'm okay. I'm okay. And I think you already have enough issues of your own, to spend so much time thinking about mine. So please...take care of yourself, okay?"
She sounded genuinely concern about him. She couldn't help him with his problems, she couldn't be here for him, but she still wanted him to be happy because he'd always be her friend. He just couldn't be more than that.
When he'd called Alina, he didn't think this conversation would go this way. Yet, he knew she was right. He had to respect her choice to keep her secrets to herself because she really didn't need him. She was already in good hands and that was hard to accept because that meant he'd realized way too late that he still had feelings for her. She already had someone else in her heart now.
Elias forced himself to smile even though Alina couldn't see him, and nodded with a huge lump in his throat. "Okay..."
She smiled, satisfied by his answer. "Well I gotta go back to my case now. Thanks for calling."
"No problem. Bye Alina."
She waited a short moment before hanging up and letting out a huge sigh of relief. She looked at the animated city around her, and smiled even more. That had gone better than she'd imagined it to go, and she was happy about it.
"Hey Frenchy!"
The hunter turned around the moment she recognized Dean's voice coming from behind her. He'd left the bar and was now walking towards her with a faint smile. And no matter how good he was at hiding his emotions, Alina could see that something was wrong with him.
"Hey..." She frowned when she noticed Sam's absence, but didn't say anything about it. She was too focused on his strange behavior.
"You okay?" No matter how troubled he was, he still had to check up on her first. That was classic Dean.
She smiled confidently. "Well I don't think Elias will be calling me anytime soon, so...yeah actually. I feel great."
Although he wasn't worried about having to compete against Elias, he was more than happy about that information. Mostly because Alina looked better now that she'd said whatever she had to say to make him stop digging into her secrets.
"What about you?" Alina quickly returned the question, eagerly waiting to know the reason of his uneasiness. "Are you alright?"
Had something happened? She hadn't even been gone for so long.
The young woman waited for his answer, crossing her arms impatiently as he didn't seem to want to talk about his problem. He opened and closed his mouth multiple times, shrugged, crossed his arms, scratched the back of his head nervously, then finally...
"Do I treat Sam like luggage?"
Alina's eyes widened at the unexpected question. "Wow, what..."
"I mean he's free to do what he wants, right? I don't...I'm not forcing him to be here!"
"Okay hold on!" Alina put her hands on his shoulder to bring his attention back to her and calm him down. "What happened? Did Sam say those things to you?"
"No. 'Meg' did." He said that name with some kind of annoyance, but Alina had no idea of who that Meg was supposed to be.
"Who's Meg?"
"Sam's friend."
Alina thought for a moment. Sam didn't have much friends, except for the ones from college. But he'd never talk about Dean with them. She still knew she'd heard that name before. They'd all been so busy with their job recently, when had Sam found the time to make new friends without Dean or Alina meeting them? They were always together. Except...
"Wait...you mean that girl he met on the road, back when we were working on that scarecrow thing?"
Dean frowned, surprised by her quick deduction. "How do you know that?"
"Sam told me about her the day after he returned. But..." Now that she had the who...she needed to know the 'what the hell?' part. "Why would she say that?"
"Oh I've got a pretty good idea of who might've complained to her about me."
He really looked hurt, and Alina couldn't blame him for it. A total stranger, his little brother had met once in his entire life, had simply decided to insult him when he hadn't done anything wrong. The young woman hated to see Dean doubting himself like that, when all he'd ever done in his life was to protect Sam. He'd sacrificed so much for him, how could that idiot say those terrible things about him to a girl he'd met in the middle of an empty road.
"Listen...you shouldn't pay attention to her." Alina tried to comfort Dean, even though her teeth were already clenching in anger. "You and Sam...you've been through a lot of shit that a total stranger wouldn't understand. I don't think Sam himself understands anything, the guy's an idiot! That Meg chick doesn't know you, she doesn't know Sam, and she definitely doesn't know me if she thinks she can talk to you like that without losing a tooth or two in the process!"
The hunter was more than ready to head back to the bar, luckily Dean was fast enough to stop her, being the one holding her shoulders to calm her down this time. "Hey it's fine. You don't have to..."
"Of course I do!" She wasn't even pretending to be mad to make him laugh, she genuinely wanted to kick that girl's ass for ruining all her job to boost Dean Winchester's self esteem. She'd spent months telling him to stop doubting himself for god's sake! "She doesn't get to judge you like that! I'm just gonna teach her some of my favorite French insults, maybe send her to the nearest hospital...nothing to bad."
She once again tried to leave, but Dean was holding her firmly. Alina was about to ask him to let her go, when she finally lifted her head and noticed his smile. His eyes. They were full of love, but why? She was angry, this wasn't the right time to look at her with admiration or tenderness. "Why are you smiling?! I'm not kidding!"
"I know."
"I'm gonna kick her ass!"
Dean shook his head softly and took a step closer to her, holding her face in his warm hands to prevent her from looking away. He gently rubbed her cheeks with his thumbs, unable to understand how such a beautiful woman could go completely wild just to defend someone like him. He wasn't even mad about Sam's friend anymore, he was too glad to have someone as amazing as Alina by his side.
The young man scoffed at the way she was trying to stay angry, even if she was struggling not to get lost in his eyes. He started to lean towards her slowly and...Alina suddenly pushed him aside with determination.
"Samuel Winchester!" The young woman yelled at her best friend the moment she saw him walking out of the bar so nonchalantly. She almost rushed to him, completely ignoring Dean's sigh behind her. "What the hell's wrong with you?!"
"Alina..." Sam knew he'd get in trouble with her the second Meg had said these things to Dean.
"Don't 'Alina' me!" She was so angry, she didn't hesitate to hit him in the chest, making him slightly cringe. She was a hunter, she knew how to put all her strength in one single and simple hit when she was angry. "So what...is talking shit about your brother a new way to start a conversation now when you meet a girl?!"
"Listen..." Sam tried to look and sound as calm as possible because he knew Alina when she was acting like that. And he couldn't be messing with her right now. "I didn't mean to...it was right after that huge fight we had back in Indiana. But that's not important, just..."
"Not important?!" Alina was outraged by his reaction and hit him again right before Dean joined them.
The eldest Winchester put his hand on the young woman's back to calm her down a little and kept his gaze on his brother. "Well, is there any truth to what she's saying? I mean, am I keeping you against your will, Sam?"
"No, of course not. I was mad..."
"Oh you were mad?" Alina faked a satisfied smile. "Well that explains everything." She noticed a group of guys walking right past them and immediately turned to stop them. "Hi, 'group of strangers I'm meeting for the first time in my life in the middle of the night'! Have you met my best friend Sam here?! He peed himself the first time we went to the circus!"
"Alina!" Sam instantly scolded her in embarrassment, while Dean had to fight against every fiber of his body not to burst out laughing like the group of friends now walking away from them.
"What?" Sam's best friend asked him nonchalantly. "I thought I could say anything about you to those strangers because I'm mad at you. Isn't that how it works?"
Sam sighed, unable to protest in this situation. So he simply turned to his brother, in complete defeat. "Look...I'm sorry man. I really am."
Dean nodded, accepting his apologies with a proud smile on his face. This clearly wasn't necessary, but knowing that Alina would've kept insisting if Sam hadn't apologized, just made him feel better than ever. He watched the girl standing next to him, crossing her arms unimpressed, but satisfied anyway.
"Now, would you guys listen to me? I think there's something strange going on with Meg."
Alina couldn't believe he was having suspicions about that girl now. What the hell was going on?!
"Yeah, tell me about it." Dean shrugged, turning to Alina. "She wasn't even that into me."
Alina instantly gave him a confused expression, shaking her head as if she couldn't accept that statement. "Okay she's insane. Sam, your friend's insane."
Sam was losing his patience, although he was more than glad to see Alina in a better mood now. "No, guys, I mean like our kind of strange. Like, maybe even a lead."
"Why do you say that?" The two hunters asked in chorus, noticing how serious he was about this.
"I met Meg weeks ago, literally on the side of the road. And now, I run into her in some random Chicago bar? I mean, the same bar where a waitress was slaughtered by something supernatural? You don't think that's a little weird?"
Dean shrugged again. "I don't know, random coincidence. It happens."
"Yeah, it happens, but not to us. Look, I could be wrong, I'm just saying that there's something about this girl that I can't quite put my finger on."
Dean smirked, while Alina sighed already guessing what was about to come out of his pervert mouth.
"But I bet you'd like to. I mean, maybe she's not a suspect, maybe you've got a thing for her, huh?"
The youngest Winchester rolled his eyes and laughed slightly at his brother's words. And although Alina was still a little mad at him, she just couldn't miss an occasion to tease him. Plus, he'd already apologized to Dean so they were good now. She eventually copied Dean suspicious and amused look. "Weren't you the one lecturing us just a few minutes ago about that, Sam?"
"Yeah, maybe you're thinking a little too much with your upstairs brain, huh?"
The were both grinning like proud kids making fun of him, which made Sam become serious again. He couldn't waste his time on this. Something was definitely wrong and he had to find out what. "Do me a favor. Check and see if there's really a Meg Masters from Andover, Massachusetts, and see if you can dig anything up on that symbol on Meredith's floor."
Alina grimaced at the mentioned of the symbol. She'd almost forgot about it and was starting to have fun again. Oh well...
"What are you gonna do?" Dean asked his brother with concern.
Sam hesitated. He knew how they were going to react, but he didn't have any other choice. "I'm gonna watch Meg."
And as expected, they both snorted at his reply. "Yeah, you are."
"I just wanna see what's what. Better safe than sorry."
"All right, you little pervert." Dean added in an amused tone he couldn't and didn't want to hide.
"Dude..."
"Come on Winchester, let's go." Alina grabbed Dean's arm and started to pull him away from Sam.
"Alina..." Her best friend tried to defend himself with her too, but they were already leaving, crossing the street to walk back towards their motel.
A shorter chapter because I wanted this episode to be in 3 parts. Hope you liked the first one, as always, I just love writing Dean and Alina's little moments as a cute and sometimes weird couple. If you also like their dynamic, I think you'll enjoy part 2.
Thanks again for all the love, and of course the next part will be posted pretty soon.
Have a good day/night!