Croatoan- Part 1

Dean wasn't thrilled with the current sleeping situation. Under many circumstances, sharing the same room as Mae and Sam was fine but it had several distinct drawbacks that were more annoying than usual. Now, it also left him feeling more isolated than if Mae had taken her own room. If she had done that, he would have understood that she didn't want to see him, even if he didn't know why. When she wanted to share a bed but didn't want anything else from him, Dean unsure of where he stood with her. Despite Mae's assurance that she wasn't angry with him, he couldn't shake the feeling that she was. It wasn't the first night he wondered if Mae and Sam had decided this was the best way to keep a closer watch on him.

Even with Mae sleeping right next to him, there was too much distance between them. Though they weren't outwardly fighting, there was an underlying tension they never addressed. Mae was more closed off in the past few weeks and they were basically only talking about their work. While there were still moments of warmth and affection, everything else had come to a halt, as if she had to remind herself that she shouldn't let herself be close with him. He wanted things to go back to normal with them, though he didn't know how to do that.

Angry might have been the wrong description for Mae's feelings. She and Sam were both upset with him, he knew. But he thought Mae seemed to have a deeper understanding of his emotional state. Unlike Sam's confrontational disapproval, Mae's more gentle and compassionate approach was more unsettling. At least until her annoyance with him got the better of her and her patience would snap. He smirked a bit, imagining the imploring frown on her face if he told her that her kindness terrified him on some level.

In the near darkness of the room, Dean lay still, his eyes fixed on the ceiling. The only sound he focused on was Mae's gentle breathing. It was out of sync with his own. He hadn't realized how accustomed he had become to their harmonious breaths. Despite the relative quiet of the motel, his mind raced with thoughts. This was one of the few times that he couldn't fall asleep easily with Mae by his side. He never thought he would experience this kind of tension in a genuine relationship. Well, at least not with Mae. With any other woman, he could have predicted it, the weight of having to keep the secret or burden of knowing the truth would have been more than enough. Mae, however, was one of the few people who understood him. But not the way he felt now; she couldn't comprehend that, and it felt like he was failing again.

He turned his head to look at Mae, her face tranquil as she slept. She looked so peaceful and lovely, stirring a deep, familiar longing in him that he couldn't quite explain. It wasn't sexual; it was calm, comfort, maybe even happiness and in these quiet moments with her, he could picture an entirely different world. But she'd had that once before, just not with him, and she ended up right back here so perhaps anything else for them was an idle fantasy. He reach out to her and gently traced the soft curve of her cheek with his fingertips, marveling at her delicate and vulnerable beauty.

She didn't stir at his touch and because she remained asleep, he leaned in to press an innocent kiss to her lips, whispering a plea for her not to give up on him and to give him more time. Pulling away slowly so as not to wake her, he got out of bed and dressed, needing to distract himself from thoughts of what could be going wrong between them. He checked the time. It wasn't that late. A beer or three might lull him in to sleep since Mae wasn't doing the trick this time.

When Dean returned to the room, chewing on a piece of jerky, and carrying a six pack, the scene had changed. The light between the two beds was on. Sam was sitting on the floor as Mae crouched beside him, one hand on his shoulder and the other brushing hair out of his face.

"Sam?" He might have been able to keep his voice level but his eyes held no small amount of fear. "Mae? What wrong?"

"No..." Sam said quietly, more to himself as he returned to the here and now.

"Vision, I think." Mae said flatly, with a shake of her head, "He just, you know..." Her hand moved away from his face as she made a gesture indicating Sam had fallen from the bed.

It was officially late by the time they had packed up their gear and hit the road, again following Sam's vision. After some quick research to pinpoint the possible location in his vision, Sam set the GPS to send them west. It directed them to continue on O-R Two-Two-Four West.

"There are only two towns in the US named Rivergrove." Sam said.

"How come you're so sure it's the one in Oregon?"

Sam recalled the poster from his vision. "There was a picture. Crater Lake."

"Okay, what else?"

With a little shrug, Sam shared the broad strokes of the vision. "I saw a dark room, some people, and a guy tied to a chair."

"And I ventilated him?" Dean asked, skeptical. Sam's visions were typically right and there were several reasons Dean could think of that he might shoot someone but most weren't without cause.

"Yeah. You thought there was something inside him."

At that, Dean's glance shifted back and forth as he thought about the possible reason for that. "What, a demon? Was he possessed?"

Mae leaned forward from the backseat. "Why would you shoot someone who was possessed when we could at least try to save the person?"

"I don't know." Sam replied to all their questions.

"Well, all your weirdo visions are always tied to the Yellow-Eyed Demon somehow...so was there any black smoke? Did we try to exorcise it?"

"No. Nothing, you just plugged him, that's it."

"Well, I'm sure I had a good reason."

"I sure hope so." Sam replied.

Dean's eyes narrowed. "What does that mean?" He waited a second for Sam or Mae to answer. "I mean, I'm not gonna waste an innocent man." This time, he only received a raised eyebrow in response. "I wouldn't!"

"I never said you would!"

He wanted one of them to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it would be Mae. "Red, you don't think I'd really..."

Her eyes shifted away from his side glance. "I think you'd probably tell yourself you didn't have a choice but maybe you snapped."

"What does that mean?" Dean asked again, more bothered by their seeming acceptance of his as a stone cold killer.

"It means what it means. You're not exactly acting-"

Sam cut Mae off. "Okay, c'mon let's just get to Oregon and figure things out from there." There was time for that discussion once they knew more.

"Fine!" Dean replied.

"Fine! Look, we don't know what it is. But whatever it is, that guy in the chair's a part of it. So let's find him, and see what's what."

"Fine." Dean said, less annoyed this time but still dissatisfied.

"Fine." Mae and Sam both said.

As they drove into town, they passed a large sign for Crater Lake and otherwise, it appeared to be a normal small town. Nothing seemed amiss. In fact, it seemed mundane. They pulled up in front of a building with a sign that read 'Medical Clinic'. Looking out the window, Sam saw an older man in a blue short-sleeved shirt and a brown fishing vest across the street. He was casually reassembling a fishing rod. "He was there."

They got out of the car to speak with the man.

"Morning." Dean said.

"Good morning. Can I help you?" The man replied, guarded, giving each of them an assessing look.

"Yeah." Dean reached into his jacket and pulled out his badge, "Uh, Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard, Patty Smyth. U.S. Marshals." Mae and Sam flashed their badges as well.

"What's this about?"

"We're looking for someone."

"A young man, early twenties." Sam said, then recalling some identifying details from his vision, "he'd have a, a thin scar right below his hairline."

"What'd he do?" The man asked.

"Well, nothing. We're actually looking for someone else, but we think this young man could help us."

"Yeah, he's not in any kind of trouble or anything; well, not yet." Dean glanced down at the man's left arm, "I think maybe you know who he is . . . Master Sergeant. " Dean gave a smile, "My dad was in the Corps, he was a Corporal."

"What company?"

"Echo-2-1."

"So can you help us?" Sam asked.

The man hesitated a moment. "Duane Tanner's got a scar like that. But I know him. Good kid, keeps his nose clean."

"Oh, I'm sure he does." Dean replied. "Um. You know where he lives?"

"With his family, up Aspen Way."

Dean tucked his hands into his pockets. "Thank you."

The trio walked away, across the street, back towards the car.

"You were awfully quite there Red. You okay?" Dean nudged her shoulder playfully with his.

She nodded. "Yeah. Fine."

Dean gave her a closer look. It wasn't her pissed off 'fine'. She looked pale, paler than usual anyway. But if she wasn't offering up anything more, he wasn't going to push for anything more than a confirmation that she really was okay and this wasn't another instance where she disagreed with the way he was planning to do something.

Mae's vision didn't swim but she felt the overwhelming dizziness that she had come to associate with seeing that strange apparition of an old woman. She didn't understand what she was seeing, if it were even real but so far, she had always steered her to safety. Still, if Sam's visions were true, they didn't need the added complication. This time though, she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Or maybe that was worse, she didn't know yet.

"You sure, Mavis?" Dean said softer this time, placing a hand at the small over her back.

Before she could respond, Sam bumped into a telephone pole and after a glance at it, he stopped. The other two hunters paused and joined Sam in looking at the word carved into the wood as Sam pointed at it.

"Hey."

"Croatoan?" Dean asked as he read the word.

"Yeah." Dean stared blankly, "Roanoke? Lost colony? Ring a bell? Dean, did you pay any attention in history class?"

"Yeah! Shots heard 'round the world, How bills becomes laws..."

"That's not school, that's Schoolhouse Rock. Mae, c'mon."

"Conjunction junction's where's it at." she said. Her eyes were unfocused, gazing off into the distance as if lost in thought. She absentmindedly twirled a strand of hair around her finger. Her normally alert and sharp expression was replaced with a distant, vacant look.

"Seriously?" Sam asked, not making his exasperation.

"No, I know what Croatoan is but I don't get why it would be here. It was an island off the coast of North Carolina, which is actually called Hatteras Island now."

"Is that really important now?" Sam asked, annoyed with both of his partners on this, for almost opposite reasons.

"I don't know. It's weird though."

"Whatever." Dean said.

Sam tried to jog his brother's memory. "Roanoke was one of the first English colonies in America, late 1500s?"

"Oh yeah, yeah, I do remember that. The only thing they left behind was a single word carved in a tree." Dean said, gesturing at the post, "Croatoan."

"Yeah. And I mean, there were theories — Indian raid, disease, but nobody knows what really happened. They were all just gone. I mean, wiped out overnight."

Dean looked around with a mild chuckle. The town was peaceful, quite. People were milling about the streets, carrying on with their days normally. "You don't think that's what's going on here, I mean..."

"In all fairness, it probably wasn't overnight. It was 5 years between establishment of the colony and when the British came back to check on it. But there are still people here. It doesn't exactly seem like the town people here are gone." Both men looked at her expectantly, "and... yeah, that probably doesn't matter for whatever we're dealing with here."

Sam's brow wrinkled before he turned back to Dean and then towards the ominously carved word. "Whatever I saw in my head, it sure wasn't good. But what do you think could do that?"

Dean thought for a moment before sighing. "Well, I mean, like I said, all of your weirdo visions are always tied to the Yellow-Eyed Demon somehow, so...

"We should get help. Bobby, uh, Ellen maybe?"

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Dean agreed, pulling out his phone to dial. He frowned at it. "I don't have a signal."

Sam took his phone out, hoping his would work but found it out of service too. "I don't either."

"Red?" Dean looked over to Mae, only to find that she had started to walk down the street towards the corner. Swiftly, he caught up to her, grabbing her arm, and stopping her. "Seriously, are you alright?"

She closed her eyes a moment. "I don't know. I feel..." She closed her eyes, trying to find the words. "Something's wrong."

"Clearly. Are you... losin' it too?"

Mae wasn't sure who he might have been included on the list of which of them was losing it. Maybe all of them. Certainly, Sam and her. "No. I don't know. I..." She took a breath. Whatever she was expecting, whatever she was feeling wasn't happening and they had a bigger mystery. "it's fine."

Dean didn't believe her but if they were dealing with the Yellow Eyed Demon or any other demons, Mae would have to wait if she didn't know what was wrong.

Because they were near a pay phone, Dean picked it up only to hear a beeping indicating it was out of service. He clicked the receiver several times. "Line's dead." He placed the handset back on down and flowing slightly at Mae, he sighed, "I'll tell you one thing. If I was gonna massacre a town, that'd be my first step."

They found Aspen Way a short while later, just outside of the main town. There wasn't a driveway, just a dirt road that trailed off beside the house. The parked outside of a cabin style house, which had been indicated as the Tanner family's, and paused.

Mae made a small, pained sound before she closed her eyes tightly. Her head swam again, more than before. When she looked up this time there were small black spots in her vision. She closed her eyes again. Regardless of her hesitation around following another one of Sam's visions into a situation that was undoubtedly tied to the demon, there was something here.

Whatever that something was bad, though she couldn't say what it was exactly, she only had a feeling or a sense of sinister. And that wasn't enough to stop trying to figure out what was happening in this otherwise peaceful town.

"You feel that?" She asked, not knowing if it was real or not.

Dean frowned, looking over at Mae. She was pale and, whether she recognize it, her nose started to bleed. Undoing his seat belt, Dean slid closer to Mae. He also opened the glove box, pulling out a few napkins, pressing them to her nose. "Whoa, hey, babe. What's wrong? What's happening?"

She shook her head slightly, not trusting herself to be able to speak right then. She was vaguely aware of Dean's hand on the back of her neck and the napkins at her nose. She felt like the constant humming in her head was going to make her eardrum explode for a moment. After what seemed like an eternity, it subsided. Her vision cleared up a bit but she still felt woozy. She took the napkin from Dean, surprised that there was blood there and pressed the napkin back against her nose.

"I don't know... It's like...I don't know what it's like. The last time I felt a little like this was when Andy and his freaky twin tried to use their powers on me."

"You think that's what we're dealing with here? Another psychic kid?" Dean asked.

"No. I don't know. It's...it's different." She muttered, rubbing at her forehead. "Hey. I'm okay."

Dean glanced at Sam, who was seated in the back, leaning forward with concern. "Listen, maybe you should hang back while we talk to these people."

"I can help." She said weakly.

"Yeah, you can and right now, whatever is going on, I need to focus on that, not you. No offence, Red."

She paused, nodded. "Yeah. I really am okay."

He squeezed the back of her neck gently. "I know. Don't worry, this'll be quick."

Both men surveyed the area around the cabin as they approached the front. Sam cleared his throat. "Are you sure we should...you know, maybe Mae should sit this one out if she's…if whatever is happening to his is happening."

"Where exactly do you think she could go? It's not like you haven't had your freaky visions in the middle of the job. At least we know we're on the right track. Besides, if this is something or she's... I don't know, whatever is happening to her, I want her close."

Sam didn't say anything more as the climbed the front porch stairs and he knocked on the door.

Mae watched as they approached the door and knocked. She couldn't make out what was going on inside the house. In addition to the buzz in her head, she had a bad feeling about this but couldn't put her finger on the cause. She wasn't sure if going with them would have done any good. Despite not saying it, she knew Dean was right; if she were being influenced by something in this town or in that house, it wasn't going to help them. It was going to distract Dean.

She watched the boys talk to whoever had answered the door, making no indication how well or how poorly things were going. She had gotten pretty good at reading those little giveaways in Dean's posture and stance but not this time.

After several more minutes, the boys turned away as the door shut behind them but they didn't return to the car. They lingered a moment on the porch steps before turning away from the car. Dean signaled to her to stay put as they moved off the porch, and turned the corner. As the boys disappeared from her sight, Mae reminded themselves that they had been trained to do just this and it wasn't like a third person would help them. Still, she unbuckled her seat belt and took her weapon from the shoulder holster she wore, checking it. She told herself she was just being paranoid.

Things were quiet, almost peaceful, except for her elevated heartrate as she waited. Then, she heard what sounded like three muffled shots from the house. However she was feeling then, she wasn't going to sit and wait. She kept her weapon at the ready as she got out of the car, closing it behind her, and started running to the house.

To her surprise, a young man burst through one of the windows, running into the woods. Between the options of chasing him and checking on the boys, she turned towards the house. Sam was at the window, weapon trained in the direction of the young man. Mae angled her gun away from Sam, raising her free hand in surrender. Sam did similarly as Dean stepped up behind his brother. Mae breathed a sigh of relief.