A/N-Takes place during Simon Says. As always, please read and review.
Mae leaned forward, eyes gleaming with excitement. "So, I found a weird one I think we could look into."
In the bar, Dean and Mae sat together at a small round table on bar stools. Like the other patrons, they had beers mugs of beer, mostly empty now. Unlike the others, they had a small collection of news papers and Sam's laptop. Sam had left to go to the bathroom. Without his brother, Dean had other ideas in mind with their short time alone.
"Yeah?" Dean's eyes held a similar glimmer, although he wasn't remotely interested in looking for a new job, not right then. It wasn't as if he would lose the opportunity to hook up with the beautiful redhead if they moved on from this bar. He knew he'd have many more opportunities, some he couldn't even have expected if he were on the prowl for another woman.
Dean's hand moved firmly and tenderly on her thigh as he looked over the papers she had laid out. "Northern Minnesota, the body of a guy on a hunting trip was reported by the rest of his group. They said there were some weird sounds in the forest that night and when they woke up, this guy was dead and sliced open. All the other guys he was with were cleared of any wrong doing by the cops."
He took his hand off her leg for a moment to push her long red hair over her shoulder. He leaned in to kiss her neck and let his hand wander back to her leg. "That's not much Mae."
"No, not that alone. But all over the Great Lakes area over the past few decades, there have been reports of hunters going missing or dying on trips, some sliced up, some with no signs of being sliced up."
Dean pulled back, a bit intrigued now. "Hunters or like" he waved his free hand between them, "hunter hunters."
"The shot Bambi's mom kind. Anyway, there's a handful of them that are found with missing livers."
Dean shrugged. "Could be an animal. Or just a good ol' fashion woodland psycho."
"Could be but the chests are cut open, not torn open and no other organs are missing. But get this, sometimes, they're not even found cut open. They're closed back up but not like it was done by any thing people would use to close up a wound."
"Yeah?" He raised an eyebrow but more significantly, his hand stilled.
"Yeah. And here's the kicker. Sometime," she raised a hand to count of the items that signaled a job to her on her fingers, "missing liver, closed up clean, and a rock in the liver's place."
"Huh. Well that not an animal."
"Or a person."
"You know what it is?"
"Baykok."
"Never heard of it."
"Bit like a wendigo-used to be a hunter or warrior that committed some kind of major crime against people, is denied an honorable burial and becomes this unholy skeletal creature. It goes after other warriors, hunters but not regular people. It actually doesn't like to go near cities. They like to prey on sleeping hunters or let out a cry that paralyzes someone with fear. But, they can only go after one person at a time. They either shoot you with an arrow or beat you unconscious. Oh and legend has it, they can go invisible."
Dean frowned. "You're proposing a camping trip where something will specifically target people like us where we can't sleep, can't see the thing we're hunting, and run the risk of being de-livered. And oh yeah camping."
Mae laughed a little. "Yeah well, you just wanna leave an evil thing running around the wood? All we have to do is break its bones and burn them."
"Oh, that's all."
"You have a better job?"
"I can think of so many better things to do that don't involve camping." He grinned at her with no small amount of lust in his eyes.
"Well, Sam's not gonna want to let us have fun times without a plan to go after the demon or hunt something else."
"I could rock-paper-scissor him for it."
"Okay and after you lose that and we're camping, what do you wanna do?"
"I'm not gonna lose."
She rolled her eyes playfully and leaned in, kissing his nose. "You're cute when you're wrong."
"You're...wrong."
Mae laughed at his classically terrible comeback and let him kiss her.
"You know, Sam's been gone a while."
"Yeah well, things happen in there Mae that a man doesn't have full control over."
"Thanks for that but... it's been like 10 minutes."
"You tired of me already?"
"No."
"Fine, I'll go check on him, if it'll make you happy."
Dean enjoyed being with Mae. She was a badass hunter, and an even better lover. She was his escape, most of the time. Sometimes, she made him face things he would rather push down and away. But it was a two way street. It was a good thing. This could work. A little smirk was on his face as he thought about her as he walked to the restroom.
Sam never anticipated the visions. They always blindsided him, they were always unpleasant, and they always left him with the task of figuring out who the victims in his vision were and how they could save them.
He gasped in pain as his vision went from his reflection in a dingy bathroom, with the water running in the sink to a city street at midday. An older man walked down the street with a smile on his face. His phone rang. "Hello. Yeah."
"All right." The man said.
Sam then saw the man who answered the phone cocking a shotgun. He was still on the phone but he lowered it slowly now. Behind him, Sam noted a passing city bus with a Blue Ridge logo on it. The man smiled and continued walking. Eventually, he arrived at and entered a sporting good shop. He approached another man who stood behind the counter, reading a Guns magazine.
"Afternoon, Dennis."
"Hey, Doc." The man behind the counter replied.
"I'd like to look at a gun."
The man behind the counter, Dennis laughed but he didn't move, "Yeah, right, doc."
The first man only looked at him.
"Seriously?" Dennis asked but crossed behind the counter in front of a display of guns.
The doctor, so Sam surmised, looked around and pointed. "That one."
Dennis unlocked the display and removed the gun. "Okay. That's a turkey hunter, twelve gauge, pump action. Doesn't leave enough turkey behind, if you ask me."
"What, uh, sort of shells does it use?" He asked as he examined the weapon.
Denis pulled a box up from under the counter. "Right here. I'm taking the boys up to the cabin this weekend if you're uh... I mean if you think you might like to take up the sport."
The doctor took out a shell and loaded it into the gun. "Thanks, but no." he said with a jovial chuckle, "You know guns make me nervous, always have. This one goes in here, right?"
Alarmed, Dennis tried to stop the other man. "Whoa, Doc! No, you can't load a weapon on the premises, it's illegal! "
"It's okay, Dennis." He responded.
"No, no."
"It's okay, Dennis. It's all gonna be okay."
Then, to Sam's horror and shock, he turned the gun on Dennis and fired.
"Doc!" The force of the blast sent him against the glass cabinet behind him, as the other customers start to panic.
"No, no, it's, it's okay." He said, reassuring the people in the store, "It's okay. It's all gonna be okay." Then he put the shotgun against his chin an pulled the trigger.
Sam's vision flashed again and he was back in the bathroom. "No..."
He ran a hand under the water to he could wash his face a bit. He scrubbed the hand through his hair, trying to steady himself and ease the vision from his mind. His breath had yet to normalize. Sam turned off the water, looking up in the mirror to see his brother.
"Sam, come on, zip it up. Let's hit the..." he paused, taking a look at his brother, "... road. What?"
Sam and Dean exited the bathroom and mad their way to Mae's table with an unanticipated urgency.
Mae didn't ask what was wrong. She hadn't seen it a lot but the young man had a certain aura around him after a vision, a certain pained expression. And Dean's posture and eyes became harder, more protective. Her senses sharpened, glad they didn't go in for another round of drinks. Whatever was going on, this wasn't a safe place to discuss it. Sam still looked like he wasn't fully back. She gathered their things, stuffed them in their bags and put Sam and her bag on and rushed out of the bar with the brothers.
Dean didn't spare the acceleration as they drove down the two lane road. Sam had shared the details of the vision with the other two hunters, trying to ignore their expressions of concern. The radio was on, though no one was really listening to it. Rockin' Nebraska. Your source for the classics, all night long.
"I don't know, man, why don't we just chill out, think about this." Dean said.
Sam shut off the radio, slightly annoyed but he kept it out of his voice. "What's there to think about?"
"I just don't know if going to the Roadhouse is the smartest idea."
"Dean, it's another premonition. I know it. This is gonna happen, and Ash can tell us where."
Dean looked skeptically at his brother. "Yeah, man, but..."
"Plus it could have some connection with the demon. My visions always do."
"That's my point." Dean said emphatically, "There's gonna be hunters there. I don't know if, if, if going in and announcing that you're some supernatural freak with a, a demonic connection is the best thing, okay?"
"So I'm a freak now?"
"You've always been a freak." Dean said with brotherly affection. It did nothing to assuage Sam.
"Mae's a hunter. She knows."
"Yeah but it's Mae. She's family. She gonna listen to reason before putting a bullet in you. We can trust her."
"I mean, probably." Mae said.
Both men looked back at her. Dean pulled his attention back to the road with a deeper frown on his face.
"What's that mean? We can't trust you? You're gonna hunt me?" Sam asked, a little surprised she would say that.
"First, if you couldn't trust me and I knew it, would I tell you? My point is, yeah, you can trust me. And I'm not gonna do anything. But you can't assume someone is safe just because you know them. Your brother's right though, we need to be careful with who we tell and how we tell them."
"You think we can't trust Ellen?" Sam asked.
"I think we can't trust every hunter out there. That's all."
The three hunters walked inside the Roadhouse. It was more crowded that they would have wanted. They drew the glances of were a two men cleaning weapons at one of the table they passed by. Mae didn't recognize them but offered a slight nod to the grin she eventually received from one of them.
Ellen's daughter, Jo, was close to the door and smiled at Dean in a way that could only be interpreted as flirtatious. "Just can't stay away, huh?"
He chuckled, suddenly very aware of the closeness of Mae's body to his left arm. "Yeah, looks like. How you doin', Jo?"
Sam didn't have time for niceties. "Where's Ash?"
"In his back room." Jo answered.
Sam brushed pass her with a hurried 'great' and Mae followed him, more concerned about Sam rather than whatever was going on between Dean and Jo.
"And I'm fine..." Joe said with displeasure in her tone at Sam's retreating form.
"Sorry, he's, we're... kind of on a bit of a timetable."
"Mmhmm."
They made their way through the bar to the back of the building, where the rooms were. One one of the rough wooden doors was a sign declaring Dr. Badass is in.
Sam knocked on the door before calling, "Ash?" He knocked again. "Hey, Ash?" He asked, louder this time to hopefully be heard over the din of noise inside the room.
When there was no response, Dean smirked and knocked louder. "Hey, Dr. Badass?"
This time a rather annoyed and very naked Ash opened the door. There were strobing lights inside the room. "Sam? Dean?" He took a loud sniff, "Sam and Dean. And Mae Singer? Well, well."
Dean frowned, glancing back at the tall redhead, both to gauge her reaction at the odd tone in Ash's voice and to hot have to keep looking at the other man. Was there something between her and Ash? He hadn't considered it but it was entirely possible. She definitely didn't seem perturbed by his lack of clothing but at least she didn't seem interested.
"Hey Ash. Um. We need your help." Sam said, making sure to only make eye contact.
"Well, hell then. Guess I need my pants." He said with a wide grin.
Once he was dressed, Ash and the trio were back at the bar. Ash and Sam sat at a table with his laptop open, looking at the sketch of the bus logo Sam drew. Dean and Mae stood behind them, but Dean pulled Mae a little close to him with a finger hooked in her belt loop. The move earned him a pointedly raised eyebrow but she didn't ease away once his hand dropped from her hip and he leaned against the wall.
"Well, I got a match. It's the logo from the Blue Ridge bus lines in Guthrie, Oklahoma." Ash said.
"Okay. Do me a favor - check Guthrie for any demonic signs, or omens, or anything like that."
"You think the demon's there?"
"Yeah, maybe." Sam offered.
"Why would you think that?" Ash asked.
Dean interceded. "Just check it, all right?"
Ash did so and the boys exchanged a look, both hoping that they would find nothing but also hoping there was something. "No, sir, nothing. No demon.
Sam contemplated his next ask for a moment before. "All right, try something else for me. Search Guthrie for a house fire. It would be 1983, fire's origin would be a baby's nursery, night of the kid's six month birthday."
Ash was tellingly confused by the specificity of the request while Mae and Dean looked around to check for eavesdroppers, noting only Jo behind them. "Okay, now that is just weird, man. Why the hell would I be looking for that?"
Sam placed an unopened beer next to Ash's laptop. "'Cause there's a PBR in it for ya."
"Give me fifteen minutes."
As the boys left Ash to do his work, Mae sat down next to Ash. He looked at her, expectantly. She knew the boys were in a rush. After hearing the detail they had asked Ash to put together looking for kids who'd lost their mom's the way Sam had, she had an idea. She wasn't sure the next time they would be by the Roadhouse and knew if anyone could answer her linger question, Ash could.
"Hey, you wanna look into somethin' for me too? No huge rush"
"Depends. Is it some weird ass shit like this?"
"Yeah, pretty much." She pulled a pen out of her pocket and wrote something down on a cocktail napkin.
"What are you looking for? Another demon?"
"I honestly don't know what I'm looking for. Maybe nothing." She handed him a piece of napkin with the basic details.
Ash read over the list. "This isn't much to go on."
"I know. Maybe I need to find someone better." Her eyebrow quirked in challenge.
Ash glared at the redhead a moment "You think you can goad me that easily?"
She shrugged but after a few moments, she reached in to her pocket and pulled out a folded 10 dollar bill, handing it to the man.
"And bribery too?"
"Yeah," she smirked.
He would have done it for free but he still pocked the money. "I'll try but no promises."
"Thanks, man."
Mae decided to get a beer, for lack of anything better to do. Normally, she would have secluded herself at a corner table and picked up the pretense of looking for future jobs while she and Dean flirted and she let him feel her up as much as he could get away with in a public place. She still could she supposed but Ellen intercepted her on the way to the bar.
"So, you huntin' with those boys now?" Mae could see Dean at the bar and had a sense of where Sam was behind her. Instead of look towards either man, Mae studied Ellen's face for a moment, unsure what she was really asking her.
"For a while now. Off and on." She wasn't sure the level of detail she should share with the older woman. Mae trusted Ellen, as much as she trusted other hunters she wasn't related to, but she didn't have a good bead on her intention. Based on the frown the response elicited from Ellen, she wasn't thrilled with it. 'Well, that's a subtle look."
"I don't mean anything by it."
"Pull the other one."
She thought carefully before speaking. "I just...hope you're being careful. And you know what you're getting yourself into."
"You know what I do, right Ellen?"
"And who do you think trained them up. I know you know what happens when John screws up."
There it was. Mae's eyes flicked up to Dean and she was glad he didn't hear his father's name. She wasn't really aware of anyone who hadn't had a falling out with John. Ellen knew enough about what had happened to Mae's husband to make her own conclusions and she had never been shy about her position that ultimately John held some responsibility for what happened. Mae wouldn't go that far, because she knew far more than Ellen did about this particular demon, but agreed that it might not have happened the way it did if it weren't for John. "Well aware. I appreciate the thought but I know them. You don't."
"If you say so. Just be careful. It's harder out there for a woman."
"Don't get me wrong, I appreciate you trying to...look after me but I've got this. I don't need a mom."
She narrowed her eyes a bit. "So which of his sons are you sleeping with?"
"Both." She answered coolly.
"You're just askin' for trouble, mixing business with...whatever you're doin' with them."
"I've been getting that kind of trouble since I was 14. Like I said Ellen, I appreciate the concern. If you're looking for a girl to save before she gets into deep, I'm sure you know one." She said angling her chin towards the bar.
Ellen looked over her shoulder at Dean, who smiled back nervously, making her all the more suspicious. Before either woman could say more, Sam came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder, letting her know it was time to go.
Next, they came up to Dean at the bar. "We have a match. We've gotta go." Sam said.
"All right, Jo. See you later. "
Mae tilted her head and looked up at Dean from beneath long lashes as they walked together, the corners of her mouth curling into a hint of a smile. She bumped her hip playfully against his as she said, "That's not nothing."
"What?" Dean asked.
She just raised an eyebrow expectantly.
"Jo? C'mon. She's... you know I'm with you."
"Okay."
Dean frowned and stopped for a moment. His eyes narrowed in confusion and he crossed his arms over his chest as if bracing himself for a blow as he repeated, "What?"
"I didn't say anything else," she answered calmly.
He studied her expression intently for a moment before finally relenting with a sigh. "Yeah but you were thinking it."
Mae stopped and turned back to him with a nonchalant shrug. "All I was thinking was that's not nothing."
"Just because she thinks there's something doesn't mean there is," he argued defensively, knowing that Jo's flirtations weren't entirely one sided but it was nothing more serious than a passing attraction on his part. But Mae was right; for Jo, it wasn't nothing.
"Okay." She said again, stepping to him and placing a gentle hand on his cheek before continuing to the car.
Dean knew she didn't blow up at him over it. She didn't seem particularly jealous. He wasn't sure if their positions were reversed that he would have reacted to calmly but he still felt like he was in trouble somehow. The little voice in the back of his head said it was just guilt over whatever interest he felt for the other woman.
In the backseat of the Impala, Sam was looking at a stack of papers provided by Ash. "Andrew Gallagher. Born in eighty three, like me. Lost his mother in a nursery fire exactly six months later, also like me."
"You think the demon killed his mom?"
"Sure looks like it."
"How did you even know to look for this guy?" Dean asked.
"Every premonition I've had, if they're not about the demon they're about the other kids the demon visited. Like Max Miller, remember him?"
"Yeah, but Max Miller was a pasty little psycho." Dean said with sardonic amusement.
"The point is he was killing people. And I was having the same type of visions about him. And now it could be happening all over again with this Gallagher guy."
"What about back in Idaho? You had a vision and of all the demons we found, it wasn't the one we're looking for." Mae said.
"We don't really know the demon wasn't involved." Sam said.
"Why would he be shy about it? He's usually come right out with the torment and possession and torture."
"Yeah, that hasn't really been my experience." Sam retorted.
Before the two could keep comparing their interactions with the demon, he interrupted. "So Gallagher, how do we find him?"
"Don't know. No current address, no current employment. He still owes money on all his bills - phone, credit, utilities..."
"Collection agency flags?"
"None in the system."
"They just let him take a walk?"
"Seems like it." Dean made a disbelieving expression as Sam responded. "There's a work address from his last W-2, about a year ago. Let's start there."
There was a diner in Guthrie, Oklahoma. They hadn't stopped on the way from Nebraska to Oklahoma. They hadn't got a motel room either. There was not time, not to prevent Sam's vision. They didn't find Andy at the restaurant but they did take a seat at the table and had a cup of coffee, for show as much as necessity.
They had asked after Andy and the waitress explained, "You won't get anything out of Andy, guys. I'm sorry, but they never do."
It sounded like she had told that to a few other strangers in suits looking for the young man.
"They"? Sam asked.
She nodded. 'You're debt collectors, right? Once in a while they come by. I don't know what Andy says to them, but they never come back." She seemed to marvel at his ability too.
"Actually we're, we're lawyers. Representing his Great Aunt Leta. She passed," The waitress's expression turned sad as Dean explained, "God rest her soul, and left Andy a sizable estate." Dean explained.
"Yeah. So are you a friend of his? "
"I used to be, yeah. I don't see much of Andy anymore." She seemed to genuinely miss the young man.
The busboy walked by as Andy's name was mentioned and informed them Andy did indeed kick ass, perhaps a little too excitedly as he sat down at their table.
"Is that right?" Dean asked him.
"Yeah. Andy can get you into anything. He even got me backstage at Aerosmith once, it was beautiful, bro."
Dean was a little impressed at that and smirked at Mae and Sam.
"How about bussing a table or two, Weber?" The waitress asked him.
"Yeah. You bet, boss." Weber said, a little too eagerly.
"Look, if you want to find him, try Orchard Street. Just look for a van with a barbarian queen painted on the side."
"Barbarian queen?"
"She's riding a polar bear. It's kind of hard to miss."
On Orchard street, the found the van, which was indeed hard to miss with the buxom barbarian queen riding a polar bear.
Dean was immediately taken with it as he watched the van through the side view mirror. "I'm sorry, I'm starting to like this dude. That van is sweet." He caught Mae's eyes in the rear view mirror. "You'd look pretty hot like in that get up."
"Yeah, I'll get right out to the leather bikini store so I can look like a chick airbrushed on a van for you."
He chucked but he was pretty sure if he found a leather bikini, she'd wear it for him. He looked over at Sam. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
It wasn't just his expression. Sam even tolerated his and Mae's flirting right in front of him without reminding them they were gross. "Sam, you look like you're sucking on a lemon, what's going on?"
"This Andrew Gallagher, he's the second guy like this we've found, Dean. Demon came to them when they were kids, now they're killing people."
"You were babies," Mae interjected.
Sam turned his head, glaring at Mae slightly. "So?"
"You didn't pick what that demon was going to do to you."
"Yeah but they're picking what they're doing now, which, again is killing people."
"You're not."
"How would I kill someone with death premonitions?"
"You've been able to do more that, under the right conditions."
Sam's expression turned to a scowl as his eye shifted to Dean momentarily. "Hey, she has a right to know what she's getting into." Was all his brother said at Sam's silent admonition for sharing something like that with Mae.
"All I'm saying is, maybe these kids just need a different influence, you know? We find them and...try to set them on a different path, keep an eye on them. The maybe they're just seeing their relatives bang and almost passing out in gross public bathrooms."
"Yeah, like that's not gonna drive them to kill."
"Okay," Dean said, "We don't know what Andrew Gallagher is, all right? He could be innocent."
"My visions haven't been wrong yet."
"What's your point?"
"My point is, I'm one of them." Sam said.
"No, you're not."
"Dean, the demon said he had plans for me and children like me."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, maybe this is his plan, maybe we're all a bunch of psychic freaks, maybe we're all supposed to be —"
"What, killers?"
"Yeah.
"So the demon wants you out there killing with your minds, is that it? Come on, give me a break. You're not a murderer, Sam! You don't have it in your bones."
"No? Last I checked, I kill all kinds of things."
"Those things were asking for it. There's a difference."
Dean looked out the window. He'd recently had the same kind of argument with Mae around her assumptions of her nature as well. He didn't understand it, from either of them. The were both far more ethical than he was but neither had the same concerns about whether or not he could be a killer. Dean was more than certain that he was closer to it than either of them would or could be. But there was no point, he knew, in trying to convince them otherwise. At the same time, at least as far as Sam was concerned, was the thing his father had told him right before he died and Dean couldn't completely ignore the possibility that Sam was right.
Then, Sam spotted Andy, exiting the nearby building wearing pajamas and a long, robe, embroidered with dragons. "Got him."
They watched a while longer to see a woman in a second-story window wave to Andy, who blew her a kiss. As he continued to walk down the street and the hunters watched. Strangely, when Andy greeted a man on the street, they exchanged a few seemingly amiable words, he pointed at the man's coffee cup and he simply handed it to Andy before continuing on this way. The guy didn't seem like an killer on the loose, he just seemed like an inexplicably charismatic goof. As they continued to watch, Andy came upon another man, who he greeted and shook hands with. Sam's eyes went wide.
"That's him. That older guy, that's him, that's the shooter."
"All right, you and Mae keep on him, I'll stick with Andy. Go."
The two younger hunters got out of the car to follow the doctor on food while Andy got in his van and Dean followed him.
