Waking up after being punched in the face is never a pleasant ordeal, but it's made even worse when you wake up in the goddamn sewers secured to a metal post by ropes. The Shifter barely spares Elizabeth a glance as he finishes tying her feet together, looking up at her with Dean's green eyes. It's disorienting, trying to remind herself that this isn't Dean that's betrayed them, it's a monster wearing his face.
"Where's my brother, you dick," Sam snarls, drawing Elizabeth's attention to her left. He's secured just like she is, the tendons in his neck sticking out as he strains the break free of the coarse rope.
"I wouldn't worry about him," the Shifter says in that familiar drawl, standing up and moving out of Elizabeth's line of sight. "Worry about what's gonna happen to you and your little BFF over there." She flexes her wrists from where they're bound behind her, but the knot is tight and isn't giving. The Shifter gives a curt shake of his head as he comes back into view, holding a plain duffle. "Man, I thought my family was screwed up, but then I just get another memory from Dean's childhood."
"What do you mean?" Her gaze focuses on him, one of her eyes slowly swelling shut from the punch the Shifter had delivered to knock her out earlier. He presses a hand to his head, looking pained for a minute before letting out a grunt and composing himself
"He's got issues with you," the Shifter tells Sam. "You got to do things he didn't even have time to think about. And you!" He turns to face Liza now, kneeling next to her so that they're eye to eye. "Oh, he was furiouswhen you left." He reaches out to brush his fingers across her cheek, but she quickly turns her head and sinks her teeth into them before they can make contact. He lets out a pained howl, forcing her mouth open so he can snatch his fingers back.
"Touch me again and I'll bite something a little more sensitive," she snarls up at him. He doesn't scowl or lash out like she thought he would, he just bares perfect teeth in a feral grin.
"I like the fighters, you know." He shakes the pain out, smile fading as it clutches at his head again for a second. "After you left I kept remembering your senior prom and I thought that once you were back I would be able to forget it while you were actually with me, but those memories got stronger, Liza." He backhands her, standing again and walking over to a worktable loaded down with different weapons. "I still know eventually everyone is going to leave me; Sam left, Elizabeth left, and Dad left after I did whatever I could to make him happy."
"Stop talkin' like that," Sam demands, panting as he struggles against the ropes. "You're not actually my brother, you're just some freak!" Shifter Dean picks up a tarp and walks back over to Sam at an almost lazy pace, lips fixed into a grim line.
"You can see right through me because you know Dean so well, but does little Becky?" He moves like a predator, a tiger that's just been released into a room filled with easy prey. "Dean would bang her if he could, you know. Probably would've tried if Liza wasn't here to tease him so well." He throws the tarp over Sam, tucking it around him like some kind of demented parent might tuck their child in at bedtime.
"Stop it!"
"And you, baby girl!" He spins on his heel to face Elizabeth again, grabbing a fistful of her hair and wrenching her head back with enough force to rip a few strands out. "Oh God, you were all I could think about when you showed up in that spaghetti strap shirt that left just enough to the imagination."
"Get away from her!" She watches as the Shifter crouches next to her again, breath warm and sour as he brings his lips closer to hers. His hold and the ropes keep her from lashing out at him, his grip tightening whenever she attempts to move her head.
"God, some of the memories he has of you, Elizabeth, they're... Well, they certainly kept him entertained when he was lonely, sweetheart. It's too bad I have to kill you, then you could keep me entertained as well."
"Go die in a ditch," she snarls in return, wishing that the rope around her neck would vanish so she could at least manage a headbutt or something. "And when you do, make sure it's slow and agonizing." His fingers wrap around her throat, squeezing until she's gasping for air and seeing black spots.
"When I'm done with Becky, you're next and I'm gonna take it slower than I did with the others," he hisses. "I'm gonna make you beg for me to kill you and then, just before the light leaves your eyes, I'm gonna drop you off by that stupid car your boys are so fond of." He releases her and grabs the duffle, stalking out as she coughs and struggles to breathe in the putrid air as fast as she can, willing the lightheaded feeling to go away.
"Liza," Sam asks, maneuvering around until his head is visible again. "You okay?"
"Does it look like I'm okay," she grumbles, rubbing the rope binding her hands against the rough metal of the post. "The next time I see that little asshole, I'm gonna kick him so hard in the crotch that his nuts will end up in his throat!"
"Just remember who taught you that threat," a voice calls out from somewhere behind her. She tries to look in that direction, but the ropes keep her from turning too much.
"Dean?"
"The one and only. Well, the original in any case. Are y'all alright, not too many bumps and bruises?"
"I've had worse."
"Same here," Sam adds, grunting as he begins working his rope against the metal as well. As the three of them try to free their hands, they fill Dean in on what the Shifter had said, skipping over the part about what he planned to do with Elizabeth. It's bad enough that the thing took on Dean's appearance, but it would make Dean's anger reach new levels if he knew about everything.
"What do you mean he downloaded my memories," Dean asks when Sam finishes.
"Well, he knew things, Dean, things only you could know."
"Like a Vulcan mind-meld?" Elizabeth snorts at the comparison but doesn't comment on the fact that Dean Winchester is a closeted geek.
"Something like that. Maybe he can't kill us because we have to be alive or the connection would be lost." Eventually, the ropes give way and she's able to free her hands to untie the rope around her neck
"Hallelujah," she shouts with pride, grinning as she scoots away from the support beam. Dean gets loose a moment later and helps Elizabeth to untie Sam before all of them stand up and stretch their legs. "My theory is that if you're still alive—" she pokes Dean's chest to show who she means "—then the Shifter can keep looking like you. If you're a doornail, then he returns to whatever he originally looked like." Dean nods, following Sam through the tunnels as they try to find a way out so that they can save Becky's ass.
"Hey, he, uh, he didn't do anything too bad to you did he," Dean asks quietly, tucking a strand of Elizabeth's shoulder-length hair behind her ear and inspecting a bruise. "I mean, he didn't try to—"
"No," she answers shortly, looking ahead of them. "He didn't try what you're thinking." Dean lets out a sigh of relief, taking her hand in his larger one and leading her down the tunnel after Sam. It doesn't take too long to find another ladder, this one leading up to a vent and then out the side of a building. The fresh air is nice after the sewer smell, Elizabeth taking in a deep breath with her head tilted back.
"We need to call the police," Sam says, helping his brother out of the hole.
"So your plan is to put an APB out on me," Dean asks with a quirked brow. "Wouldn't that most likely backfire on us, Sammy?" Realization seems to dawn on him and he gives his brother a sheepish smile. "I get it, you wanna keep Rebecca safe, but those cops aren't gonna be able to help with a Shifter."
"Maybe Becky won't let it in," Elizabeth suggests hopefully. "I mean, she was pretty pissed off at all of us this afternoon."
"If it's got all my other attributes, then it's got my charm too. If there's one thing I'm great at, it's talking my way into places I shouldn't be in." Elizabeth scoffs as the three of them begin to jog, not stopping until they catch sight of a familiar face in a window display a few miles later. It's a TV store and all the screens are showing a sketch of Dean, the tip hotline number running across the bottom of the screens.
"They need a better sketch artist," Elizabeth says, hands on her hips. The guys look down at her and she shrugs, looping her arms through theirs and beginning to walk again. "What? They didn't get his nose right."
When they're halfway down a darkened alley, Dean forces them all to stop as he steps in front of them, anxiety and anger warring in his eyes. He looks about ready to strike out at anything in his path, but the deadened hatred that had been present in the Shifter's voice isn't there.
"At least the report only said attempted murder," Sam says, trying his best to find the silver lining in all of this.
"It's nice to know she's not dead," Dean allows," but the cops are still gunning for me."
"Liza and I can swing by to check on Becky in the morning. The least we can do now is explain everything that's going on."
"That's great, but first we're gonna find that asshole so I can kick the holy hell out of him. We can kill him after I work out some anger."
"With what? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we don't have shit."
"Well, he's running around with my face on! I don't know how it makes you feel, but I find it disturbing!"
"Whatever you plan on doing we need weapons. Look, we know he fled on foot—probably back to the sewer—so the car might be at Rebecca's." Sam's always been the sensible one of the three, but Elizabeth can see that even his hopeful nature is wearing thin. Dean shudders at the idea of the Shifter driving his car, looking like an upset toddler as they begin to walk again.
"I'm gonna have to wash Baby from top to bottom after this."
It takes twenty minutes to reach the right neighborhood on foot, mostly relying on memory of how to reach Becky's house. They don't head directly for the house, cutting off to the side and heading down a side street where hiding a car would be fairly easy. Elizabeth lets out a relieved laugh as they come around a corner and spot the Impala parked under a streetlight, glad the car is still in one piece. That car is a big part of her childhood and the thought of it being totaled had made her stomach cramp.
"Finally," Dean smiles. "Something went right tonight." He's just about to take a step towards the car when a police cruiser skids to a stop in front of the Impala and another blocks off the road they'd just turned off of.
"Fuck," Elizabeth growls, running with Dean towards a tall wooden fence on their left. I just wanted one thing, just one thing, and I can't even catch that much of a break!
"You two go, I'll hold 'em off," Sam commands, looking over his shoulder.
"Are you nuts?!" He shoots the pair a stern look that comes right out of the sibling handbook, waving an arm in a gesture for them to run. "Sammy—" He holds up a hand, pointing towards the fence.
"They can't hold me anyway and Dean's wanted for attempted murder, so get your asses in gear." As Dean and Elizabeth make it to the top of the fence, Sam yells after them. "Stay out of the sewers!" It takes all of Elizabeth's willpower to keep running even as she hears the cops yelling at Sam, but she has a job to do. Like Sam said, he isn't even technically involved in what happened with Rebecca, so the cops will have to cut him loose come morning.
Dean and Elizabeth keep running for a few more miles until they find a safe hiding space for the night, squeezing into a doorway that faces yet another alley. This one doesn't smell too bad and the bricks underneath are still dry from a small awning overhead. Elizabeth lays her head against Dean's shoulder, smiling when he wraps an arm around her in response.
"Is what the Shifter told me true," she asks after a while. "Did you really like that tank top I had on yesterday?" He gives her his signature smirk, leaning down to kiss the very tip of her nose and her eyelids and then, finally, her lips. This kiss is long and nice, both of them needing the comfort it offers. When they break apart, he pulls her closer to him to stop her shivering
"Yeah, you looked pretty nice in that shirt," he admits, arms wrapped around her. "But I still liked that prom dress better, especially when you let me take it off." She laughs softly, remembering that night fondly. They'd ditched the prom and ended up at a small outcrop that overlooked Sioux Falls, making love under the stars like in some kind of romance book. The love she'd seen his eyes was seared into her memory and there's no way she'll forget it any time soon. "Get some sleep, Liza. Tomorrow's going to be a long day."
As she falls asleep tucked against him, it's the safest she's felt for the first time since she left Chandler.