"The irrationality of a thing is not an argument against its existence rather a condition of it"
Nietzsche
October 31st 2005
His eyes were so tired. He'd been looking at these case files for the past three hours. Fair be it that it had been eleven days since the Shyer case and still Jason Gideon was still ankle deep in paperwork. It didn't help that he was also balancing his teaching workload on top of it along with helping Aaron with his own paperwork.
Perhaps it was time for him to finish for the night and head home. Afterall he wasn't getting anything done on no sleep. He was just glad they hadn't gotten a case yet..but if the events in Illinois keep growing he was sure it'd be their next case. Might as well get some sleep before hand, he thought to himself and stood closing his files and shoving them in his bag to work at home a bit later or in the morning. Looking out in the bullpen he could see the others in the team had already gone home and he sighed softly before grabbing his coat.
He was almost to his light when he heard his phone on his desk go off. He looked back out before closing his door and closing the blinds. He walked back and pulled it from the drawer and looked at the number before flicking it open.
"Jason here." He said into it before a ghost of a smile crossed his face. "Yeah I remember you kiddo….Your dad? No, I haven't heard from him why? …Well you know how your father gets. " He wrote down a little info. " I'll take a look and see if we got any requests for some weird cases there but I'm most likely gonna be busy soon….hey while you hunt the real monsters I hunt the human ones….besides you know Virginia is always quiet." He looked at the wall, seeing the newspapers on the table beside it. All small town ones he was sent. "Have you spoken to him yet? I send him some information now and again….mostly college stuff. Information from my Unit Chief…. You know it won't be an instant pleasant meeting." He sighed though. "Let me know you both are safe and keep your nose clean. You too kiddo." He hung it up and put the phone back in the drawer.
He closed his eyes and breathed in for a moment before exhaling. His eyes drifted to a photo on his table. Him, a younger middle aged man, and a young man. Under it was a newspaper from a fire over twenty two years ago. The night his normal ended. All thanks to that family.
"Thank you again Mr. Hotchner, your old notes and textbooks have been very helpful. Especially with my job interview tomorrow…yes I'll definitely let you know how it goes." Sam hung up the phone and after making sure the doors and windows were locked went up to bed with his loving girlfriend Jessica.
God as he looked upon her he couldn't help but acknowledge how lucky he had it. It wasn't long before he gently laid himself down and fell asleep. Lucky him that those few shots of alcohol from the party would help him out. Though only briefly as a crashing sound opened up his eyes and he felt the pull. Those old lessons are starting to itch their way to his surface. Once he thought he no longer needed or had, much less wanted. Slipping from the bed he snuck his way into the hallway. There is a figure! He snuck up behind but the figure was prepared.
Engaging in hand to hand combat Sam realized the figure had training. Military training. Your rusty Sam, his father's words suddenly appeared in his mind, not that he needed the reminder. This train of thought caught him off balance and the figure planted him to the floor
"Woooooo easy there tiger!" That voice!, Sam realized.
"Dean?!" His brother chuckled in response and nodded his head. "You scared the crap out of me man!"
"That's because you're out of practice." Dean grinned which irked Sam. He didn't need the additional taunting. In Fact it made Sam want to prove him wrong as he kicked Dean's legs from under him and stood over him. "-or not." That son of a bitch laughed. "Get off of me."
As Sam gripped his hand and pulled him up he couldn't help asking. "Dean, what the hell are you doing here?!"
"Well I was looking for a beer…" Dean joked at first.
"Sam?" An angelic voice echoed into the room and the brothers turned to face the newcomer.
"Jess. Hey. Sorry didn't mean to wake you." Sam sighed slightly as he regained his breath. Maybe he should up his cardio if he was already out of breath, he thought. "Dean. This is my girlfriend, Jessica."
Jess gawked for a moment. "Wait. Your brother Dean?" Yeah….maybe Sam shouldn't have spoken so ill of his kin.
"I love the smurfs." Never mind, Sam thought as his brother responded, I should have spoken iller. "You know, I got to tell you, YOU are completely out of my brother's league." Definitely iller, Sam finally decided.
"Let me put something on." Sam finally took in the fact she was still in her sleeping attire.
"No…no.. no.. I wouldn't dream of it, Seriously." Okay. Iller than Hitler, Sam decided. "Anyway, I got to borrow your boyfriend here. Talk about some private family business, but nice meeting you."
"No." Sam stood taller. He wasn't gonna just let his brother back in his life and stick his nose back into his business. Plus Jess was his partner. She deserved to know what was going on as well. "No whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her."
Dean shrugged. "Okay." He then looked around for a moment for the best words. "Uh…Dad hasn't been home in a few days."
"Sooooo he's working overtime on a "Miller Time" shift?" He was always disgusted in his father's choice of beer. "He'll stumble back in sooner or later." Nothing could get rid of that man, Sam thought, I tried.
"Dad's on a hunting trip." Dean spoke seriously now, having enough of the jokes. "And he hasn't been home in a few days."
Oh, that business. Sam hid the fear in his voice as best he could. "Jess, excuse us." He rushed forward slipping shoes on and followed his brother out the door, ignoring his girlfriend's look of exasperation.
"Come on, you can't just break in, in the middle of the night. And you expect me to hit the road with you?!"
Dean grunted. "You're not hearing me, Sammy! Dad's missing. I need you to help me find him."
"You remember the poltergeist in Amherst, or the devil's gates in Clifton?!" Sam muttered, annoyed. "He was missing then too! He's always missing and he's always fine!" His frustration grew and grew.
"Never for this long Sam…Now you gonna come with me or not?"
"I'm not."
"Why not?"
"I swore I was done hunting for good." Sam glared at his brother.
Dean rolled his eyes though. "Come on, it wasn't easy, but it wasn't that bad."
"Yeah? I told dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45!"
"Well what was he supposed to do?!" Dean glared now at his brother.
"I was nine!" Sam stared wide eyed at Dean wondering how much his brother hero worshiped their father. "He was supposed to say, "Don't be afraid of the dark."."
"Are you kidding me?! Of course you should be afraid! You know what's out there."
"Still the way we grew up? After mom was killed? And Dad's damned obsession to find that thing that killed her?! Guess what? We still don't know what it was or found what it could be! So we just decided to kill everything we could find!"
Dean snapped as he pushed open a metal fence door. "Saved a lot of people doing it too, don't you fucking forget that. "
"This is what mom wanted? For us?"
Dean grew silent as he slammed the door in Sam's face.
"The training with weapons? Melting silver into bullets?" Sam shook his head. "We were raised as warriors like we were in Sparta or something."
"So what are you gonna do?! You gonna live some normal, apple pie life?! Is that it?"
"No, not normal." Sam stared into his brother's eyes. "Safe."
"And that's why you ran."
"I was just going to college. Dad was the one who said if I was gonna go…" Sam gulped slightly. "Then I should stay gone. And for once. I did what he wanted without question."
Dean sighed before looking at him. "Dad's in real trouble now though. He may be dead already. I don't know but I can feel he needs help. I can't do this alone though. "
"Dean…yes you can."
"Yeah.." Dean admitted. "But I don't want to." Sam looked at his brother for the longest moment and saw the mask slip. Saw the boy behind the soldier and he looked up to the sky for a moment before breathing in.
"What was he hunting?" He exhaled out slowly. Dean smirked slightly before he opened the trunk of the car. Their fathers 1967 Chevy Impala. Which he guess was now Dean's as his brother opened up the secret department showing all the weapons they had collected and trained with, his brother more so over the years.
"Okay…where is it…"
"Why didn't you go with him? Dad I mean?" Sam asked his brother while he looked.
"I was doing my own gig….some voodoo thing down in New Orleans. Helped out some guy called uh La montane? I don't know some screwy fake name like that."
"Dad let you hunt…..by yourself?"
"I'm twenty six dude…" Dean rose his eyebrow at his brother before finding his notes. "Dad was checking out these highway disappearances just outside Jericho, California. Found his car but nothing on him." He handed his brother the paperwork.
"Kidnapped?"
"Local police think so too but there's another from April, and December, 04,03,98,92… 10 over the last 20 years. All men. All the same 5 mile stretch of road…." Dean sighed. "The frequency kept growing so Dad went to dig around….that was three weeks ago now. No communication. That's bad enough but then I get this voicemail yesterday."
"Dean…something is starting to happen…I think it's serious. I need to try to figure out what's going on.." The call garbled. "Be careful.. we're all in danger."
"There's evp."
"Hey looks like you didn't forget everything…I slowed it down and ran it through a gold wave….listen."
"I can never go home…"
Sam raised a eyebrow. "Never go home?"
Dean snapped the phone closed and then closed the trunk and secret compartment in one full swoop.
"I never bothered you for two years. Never asked you for a damn thing." Dean stared at his brother who was now in deep thought as if trying to decide.
"Alright… I'll go." Sam decided. "I gotta be back first thing Monday though." Sam backed up to go inside. "Wait here."
"What's Monday?"
"I have an interview?"
"A job interview? Skip it."
"It's a law school interview. It's my whole future on a plate. Got old man Gideon to get me in touched with one of his co workers who use to be a lawyer and everything."
"Law school?"
"Deal or not?" Sam ended that thought with a finalized hard look.
"Hey Garcia?" Gideon knocked on her door. "Could you do me a favor and look in on these disappearances? I have an old friend who's in the area and he just wants to make sure nothing is being missed with their connections besides the location. I also need you to search for anyone of this man's description at the morgue or hospitals." He added a note on the paper.
"Sure Gideon. I was staying late to finalize some paperwork anyway!" She took the folder and looked through it before sitting and spinning in her chair. "When do you need it?"
"If you could have it ready tomorrow morning that would be appreciated. For now go home and rest." He sighed as he walked down the hall with his suitcase. Penelope grinned and laid the file down and began getting her stuff together. Meanwhile her thoughts were thinking the easiest way to look into these disappearances in Jericho…. And the shooting in Illinois….god she needed a vacation sometimes.
In the day, we sweat it out on the streets
Of a runaway American dream
At night we ride through the mansions of glory
In the suicide machines
Sprung from cages on highway nine
Chrome wheeled, fuel injected, and steppin' out over the line
Oh, maybe this town rips the bones from your back
It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we're young
'Cause tramps like us
Baby, we were born to run
Yes, girl we were
Wendy let me in, I wanna be your friend
I wanna guard your dreams and visions
Just wrap your legs 'round these velvet rims
And strap your hands 'cross my engines
Together we could break this trap
We'll run 'til we drop, and baby, we'll never go back
Oh, will you walk with me out on the wire?
'Cause, baby, I'm just a scared and lonely rider
But I gotta know how it feels
I want to know if love is wild
Babe, I want to know if love is real
Oh, can you show me?
Beyond the Palace, hemi-powered drones
Scream down the boulevard
Girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors
And the boys try to look so hard
The amusement park rises bold and stark
Kids are huddled on the beach in a mist
I wanna die with you, Wendy, on the street tonight
Yeah, in an everlasting kiss, huh
One, two, three, four
The highway's jammed with broken heroes
On a last chance power drive
Everybody's out on the run tonight
But there's no place left to hide
Together, Wendy, we can live with the sadness
I'll love you with all the madness in my soul
Oh, someday, girl, I don't know when
We're gonna get to that place where we really wanna go
And we'll walk in the sun
But 'til then, tramps like us
Baby, we were born to run
Oh, honey, tramps like us
Baby, we were born to run
Come on with me, tramps like us
Baby, we were born to run
Run, mm
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh-oh
Run, run, run, run
Mm
Whoa-whoa, whoa-whoa
Run, run, run, run
Bruce Springsteen."