AN: I'm back! Sorry for the extended break, school just got crazy and it became a little difficult to unclench my jaw, let alone write. I spent winter break hiking in the desert with my dad so, not exactly a lot of internet access. Either way, I'm back! I also wrote a deanlena oneshot, for those of you who didn't know. You should definitely read it, I had a lot of fun writing it.
Oh yes, so at some point in the fall someone asked me about the timeline, I've tried to be as clear about it as possible, but evidently it just wasn't, so I've added handy-dandy month/year at the top of every chapter. Obviously I started this fic way before 2018, but my undying love of Buzzfeed Unsolved and imagining Dean and Elena watching it sort of locked me into a more recent year than originally. However, I love that show and I love the idea of Dean and Elena watching it just to see if the boys end up in an actual haunted place far too much, so I regret nothing, lol.
Before I shut up so you can read the chapter, I just really wanted to take the time to thank everyone for their enthusiastic reviews on the last chapter. I was pretty nervous about how ya'll might take the divergences from the original plot with the way the shapeshifter died, but the response was overwhelmingly positive. There are minimal divergences this chapter, but it's heartening to know because farther down the road...well canon certainly takes a beating, lol. Anyway, without further rambling, ENJOY!
Addendum
(n.)
A thing to be added; an addition.
Chapter Eight
Hook Man
aka
Oughta Be Prayin'
Ankeny, Iowa: March 2018
"All right, thank you," Sam says. He tries not to slam the phone down too hard. His phone call to check up on the FBI missing persons data bank had been fruitless, still no sign of their father.
He starts back to their table at the outdoor café, trying to get his shoulders to untense.
"Your uh, half-caf venti vanilla latte is getting cold over here, Francis."
Elena kicks Dean in the shin, giving him a look. Sam is clearly in a mood.
"Bite me," Sam replies instantly.
"So, anything?" Dean asks, already sounding weary.
"I had them check the FBI's Missing Persons database, no John Does fitting Dad's description."
Sam reaches out for his cup.
"Not that one, Sam," Elena says.
It's too late, he swallows down her bitter brew.
"Ugh." He gives her a look.
She shrugs.
"I tried to tell you that one was mine," she says mildly.
Dean, however, is cackling.
"Tell the truth Elena, you add gasoline to yours to make it more bitter."
Sam takes a long drink from his actual coffee to wash down the bitter aftertaste.
"Black as midnight on a moonless night, actually," she retorts.
Dean smiles at her instantly, but Sam just glances between them.
"Twin Peaks?" she offers. "Special Agent Dale Cooper?"
Sam nods.
"Right," he says, clearly not understanding.
Dean and Elena exchange a disappointed look.
"I even ran his plates for traffic violations," Sam says, switching back to their original topic. He's used to not getting Elena and Deana's inside jokes by now.
"Sam, I'm telling you, I don't think Dad wants to be found," Dean replies.
Elena nods in agreement.
Sam considers her for a second.
"He wouldn't abandon you. He made a promise to your father and he wouldn't go back on it." He looks at her, waiting for her response.
She cocks her head to the side, finally shaking it slowly.
"No, he wouldn't, but if it was important enough, like the monster that killed your mother, I think he'd be able to convince himself that he can trust Dean to look out for me," is her careful reply.
"And he can," Dean says immediately.
Elena nods.
"Of course, that was never a question."
Sam looks away, wrestling with his emotions.
"What if there was an emergency?" he asks. "What if you were hurt? Or whatever you need to be kept safe from was close?"
He knows by now that she won't answer questions about whatever it is, but what's the harm in wondering if she had some way of contacting him in emergencies?
Elena shakes her head.
"I mean, there's pretty much only two ways that can go," she pauses, glancing at Dean before she focuses on Sam again and continuing, "One way I am absolutely safe and in the other I'm dead."
Dean inhales roughly.
Sam goes pale, almost regrets saying anything.
Elena continues on mercilessly.
"There's a roadhouse he goes to sometimes, but I already called the owner, she hasn't seen or heard from him."
She shrugs.
Dean raises an eyebrow?
"A roadhouse?" he asks.
"Uh, yeah, a lot of hunters pass through." She takes a long drink of her coffee.
"Dad took you there?" Sam asks.
She nods slowly.
"Once or twice," she says vaguely. "Anyway, the owner promised she'd call if she had any news on him, but she hasn't, so..." She shrugs again.
Sam nods his acceptance, frustrated with the whole situation but grateful that Elena is willing to at least explain stuff in the most basic terms to them. She's reached out to the only place she knows that he might be.
Dean clears his throat, leaning forward to turn the laptop screen to Sam.
"Check this out," he says briskly. It's clear he's trying not to linger on what Elena said.
Sam goes along with it for his sake.
"News item out of Plains Courier, Ankeny, Iowa. It's only about a hundred miles from here," Dean explains.
"'Mutilated body was found near the victim's car, parked on 9 mile road,'" Sam recites.
"Keep reading," Dean prompts, taking a sip of his own drink.
Sam obliges.
"'Authorities are unable to provide a realistic description of the killer. The sole eyewitness, whose name has been withheld, is quoted as saying the attacker was invisible.'"
Sam considers this.
"Could be something interesting," Dean says, clearly eager to get moving.
"It could be nothing at all," Sam replies, countering him. "One freaked out witness who didn't see anything doesn't mean it's the invisible man."
Elena cocks her head to the side.
"You know, the local headlines after my father and my aunt died read: 'Stalker Murders Victim's Family,'" she says bluntly.
Sam flinches.
She continues, apparently still feeling merciless.
"It wasn't," she says flatly. "A stalker, I mean. At least not the human kind."
Sam chances a glance at Dean, who doesn't look taken by surprise, just deadly serious.
"Just because people know how to spin a story, doesn't mean it isn't our kind of case," she finishes calmly.
Dean clears his throat.
"She's got a point," he says roughly. "Anyway, Dad would check it out."
Pulling up outside of a frat house with Elena Gilbert in the backseat is unquestionably the worst idea Dean Winchester has had in a very long time.
The frat boys who'd been working on a car in a half-assed manner when they pulled up basically ceased to function the second Elena stepped out of the backseat.
Since the victim had lived there, they can't exactly leave, but Sam can see how badly Dean wants to bundle Elena back up into the Impala and keep driving until they hit Canada.
That alone makes Dean pretending they're frat brothers from Ohio worth it.
"All three of you are transfers?" one of them asks.
His eyes are fixed on Elena so his question comes off less disbelieving and more awe-filled.
Elena shakes her head before either of them can answer.
"No, I go here, I was just showing them the way here," she says easily.
"You go here?" another one asks.
"I've never seen you around before." This time it's the first one.
Elena shrugs delicately, bites her lower lip.
"I'm kind of a loner," she says, blinking innocently.
Dean is glaring, but none of them notice because they don't look away from Elena.
"Which is why we transferred," Dean says immediately, swinging his arm around her shoulders. "I'd hate for my girl to get lonely."
Elena stifles a giggle and smiles up at him.
It's the first time Sam has seen Dean pretend to be Elena's boyfriend without her giving some indication that he should. He's having a hard time keeping a straight face, but it's just a little too funny. Dean's issues aside, the almost collective deflating of the frat brothers when they hear Elena's off the market is just about the best thing Sam has seen in weeks.
They're directed inside, Dean still hugging Elena to his side.
"What the hell was that?" Dean asks under his breath as they make their way up to their assigned room.
"What do you mean?" Elena answers his question with a question.
"You didn't need to do your thing on them." Dean sounds grumpy.
Elena laughs.
"It was for fun, Dean," she says dismissively. "Besides, three transfers doesn't exactly blend in."
Sam's behind them trying not to laugh.
"Yeah, sure, whatever," Dean grumbles.
Sam finds it funny that Dean can handle it when it's explicitly about getting information for their case, but now that Elena's just having fun he has a problem with it.
They arrive at their new room. The door is open and a frat boy inside painting his upper torso purple in front of the mirror.
Elena stifles a laugh against Dean's shoulder, and Sam can visibly see him relax. He rolls his eyes. Everything between them is so damn complicated but the solution is always simple.
Dean knocks on the door to alert him to their presence.
"Who are you?" the boy asks, his eyes darting between the three of them.
His eyes land on Elena and he looks slightly terrified.
She smiles and waves.
"We're your new roommates," Dean answers, pointing to himself and Sam.
They walk in.
The kid finally tears his eyes away from Elena.
"Do me a favor, get my back," he requests, holding out the paintbrush and paint to Dean. "Big game today."
Dean still has his arm around Elena, so he presses her closer to his side. He points his thumb at Sam over Elena's shoulder.
"He's the artist, things he can do with a brush" he deadpans, forcing Sam to take the proffered paintbrush and paint.
Dean sits down on an old recliner in the corner and in a move that surprises everyone except the kid being painted, he pulls Elena down into his lap.
She gives him a slightly surprised look, but he just smiles and wraps his arms around her waist.
Sam snorts. Dean's officially gone off the walls. Figures it would take bringing Elena Gilbert to a frat house to make that happen.
Elena points out the kid's name on a poorly graded paper nearby.
Dean laces their fingers together, squeezing Elena's in silent thanks.
"So, Murph, is it true?" Dean asks, idly playing with Elena's fingers.
"What?" Murph asks.
"We heard one of the guys around here got killed last week?" Dean elaborates.
When Murph turns his head to look at Dean, Dean is fully engrossed in Elena's hands.
"Yeah," he answers.
"What happened?" Sam asks, diligently painting Murph's back while his brother is busy playing boyfriend.
"They're saying some psycho with a knife, maybe a drifter passing through," he says. "Rich was a good guy," he adds.
He gets distracted by Elena's legs in the mirror, so Sam hastens to distract him with another question.
"Rich was with somebody?"
Murph's response is almost reverent.
"Not just somebody, Lori Sorenson."
He receives blank looks all around.
"Who's Lori Sorenson?" Dean asks. Still holding Elena's hand he points to Murph. "You missed a spot down on the back."
Sam glares at Dean who swallows a laugh.
"Lori's a freshman, she's a local," Murph says. He glances at Elena before he adds the last part. "Super hot."
"A freshman?" Elena says, with the exact amount of disdain an upperclassman would use when talking about a freshman.
"She's a reverend's daughter," Murph says like that explains everything.
Elena just looks at him.
Dean is wrapped around Elena, and Elena is clearly unimpressed, so it falls to Sam to ask the obvious question.
"You wouldn't happen to know which church, would you?"
It takes them longer to get to the church than anticipated, because Elena insists they find a motel immediately so she can change into a dress.
Dean complains almost the entire way there.
"I'm Southern, Dean," Elena says pointedly. "Southern girls don't wear pants to church. Girls don't wear pants to church, period."
That shuts him up.
Her dress is gray-blue with a full skirt that hits just above her knees and a modest neckline. It's pretty, but Sam can't help but think that Elena always seems the most at home in jeans and boots and a flannel she's "borrowed" from Dean.
They end up arriving mid-eulogy, but Dean knows better than to accuse Elena of making them late. The church door slams behind Sam, making him jump and drawing everyone's attention to them.
Dean gives Sam a chastising look, but Elena looks ahead, pinning her attention to the reverend, and like magic, everyone else follows her lead.
A young girl in a short-sleeved green sweater is the last to look away.
Dean puts his hand on the small of Elena's back as he half leads her to one of the back pews, and she lets him. Sam follows behind them.
It hasn't escaped his noticed that since Elena's horror show episode with the shapeshifter version of Dean she's been more touchy-feely with Dean himself. She seeks out his touch for herself more often, instead of just indulging Dean's inability to keep his hands to himself.
Sam sometimes wonders what the shapeshifter must've said to her while they were alone; God knows he can't forget what'd been said to him. Whatever it was, there's been an imperceptible shift in Elena's behavior.
Lord knows it could have everything to do with the way the shapeshifter had died, still a mystery to both brothers. Somehow, Sam isn't so sure it is that. After all, she seems more focused on Dean, so he has to wonder what she now knows about Dean's feelings.
Part of him is afraid she's indulging him because the shapeshifter somehow revealed that's what he wants. Elena is nothing if not a strategist, if she thinks Dean is unsatisfied with the status quo, would she give him something more in order to guarantee his frustrations don't come out in other ways? It doesn't seem like something Dean would do, and Sam has to believe that Elena knows Dean better than that. Sam can't be sure, but he thinks it might just be Elena seeking the comfort of Dean himself, after being confronted with someone playing at being him.
Dean doesn't seem to mind the touching, but he hasn't taken it any further than his usual casual affection until the attention of the entire frat house forced him to lay some kind of claim to her.
Sam can't forget that the shapeshifter had said in so many words that their dad had made Dean promise not to become involved with Elena. It stews in him honestly, he can't help but think it's because John doesn't think Dean would ever be serious about Elena, and that feels unfair and entirely like their father.
It unavoidably feels like the only thing stopping Dean from telling Elena how he feels is their dad butting his nose into Dean and Elena's business. It makes Sam mad and that just piles onto all his resentment and confusion at John's disappearing act.
The reverend has reached the end of his eulogy about Rich, so he calls for everyone to pray.
With a little prodding, Dean bows his head with the rest of them. Sam knows he goes with it more easily because Elena is holding his hand, which, as he'd demonstrated in the frat house, is something Dean can entertain himself with for hours.
"Lori?" Elena asks.
Dean still has a firm grasp on her hand, and Sam is just behind her.
Lori takes in the three of them with slightly wide eyes.
"Yeah," she says somewhat timidly.
"We have English together," Elena tells her.
Lori nods. "Oh, right, with Dr. Lawrence," she says. There's a hint of doubt in her eyes, like she can't imagine having a class with Elena and not instantly recognizing her.
"This is my boyfriend Dean, and his brother Sam," says, introducing them both. "They just transferred here."
"I saw you inside," she says. "I'm glad you decided to come."
She seems to be trying to adjust to the idea that she and Elena coexist in the world on a regular basis.
Elena nods.
"It was a lovely service," Elena says, and Lori beams. "We heard what happened, I'm so sorry, that must've been terrible for you."
Lori gulps but nods in thanks.
"I kind of know what you're going through," Sam adds in, speaking finally. "I saw someone get hurt once. It's something you don't forget."
Elena nods in empathy, but doesn't add any of her own experiences to the conversation.
The reverend approaches their group.
"Dad, this is Elena, we have English together, and this is Sam and Dean, they're new students," Lori says by way of introduction.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sir," Dean says, reaching out to shake his hand. "I must say that was an inspiring sermon."
Elena nods in agreement.
"Thank you very much." The reverend is pleased by their praise.
"It's so nice to find young people who are open to the Lord's message."
The subtle side-eye Lori gives her father at his comment doesn't escape Elena's notice, but she doesn't react to it.
Elena raises an eyebrow at the stalled conversation.
"Lori I was wondering if you minded giving me an overview of last class," she says. "I had a migraine so I had to miss it."
Lori nods.
Elena lets go of Dean's hand to reach out for Lori's, who happily takes hers and the two girls walk away, leaving Sam and Dean with the reverend.
Dean starts a conversation with the reverend with impressive ease, but Sam can't help but let his attention slip over to Elena and Lori.
He can pinpoint almost the exact moment the conversation changes over from their "shared" English class to the case.
Elena reaches out to squeeze Lori's hand and the other girl seems to crumble into her, collapsing into a hug. Elena pats her back gently, rubbing her shoulders until she's done.
"How did you know she was taking English?" Dean asks.
Elena raises an eyebrow.
"She's a freshman."
Sam laughs.
They're at the library now, Elena having switched her heels with her standard boots in the car. They're filing down the stacks towards the town records.
"Do you believe her?" Sam asks Elena.
She looks back at him.
"That was never a question," she reminds him. "The question is, do you?"
Sam sighs.
"Yeah, I guess I do," he admits.
"She heard scratching on the roof?" Dean asks, clarifying details from what Elena told them of Lori's story.
Elena nods.
"And found the bloody body suspended upside down over the car," she says.
They come to a resting stop in a stack slightly secluded from the rest. Dean and Elena lean against one of the shelves, Sam across from them.
"Bloody body suspended…" Sam looks up at them. "That sounds like—"
"The Hook Man legend," Dean finishes for him.
Sam nods. He's trying not to look to the left, but he can see out of his periphery that a group of college boys have gathered at the end of the bookshelves, all looking at Elena.
"That's one of the most famous urban legends," Elena points out needlessly, lowering her voice without actually looking at the boys.
"You don't think that we're dealing with The Hook Man?"
Sam considers this.
"Can we help you?" Dean snaps.
The boys jump a little, but one of them clears their voice after a second.
"You going to the party tonight?" he asks Elena.
She looks at them all like she's waiting for the punchline.
"No," she says flatly.
Sam has never seen a more disappointed group.
"Cool," one of them says, nodding his head and trying to look just that.
"See you around, Elena," another says as they all start to walk away.
Elena stares after them.
She grabs Dean's hand to look at his watch. He barely notices because he's still glaring after the boys.
"Unbelievable, we've been here for less than three fucking hours," she says in disbelief.
"Miss Popularity." Sam teases her. He's beyond amused, but the teasing is for Dean's benefit who clearly needs a moment to deal with himself. "Only took you three hours to become the most popular girl on campus."
Dean snaps out of it.
"The case?" he says pointedly.
"Every urban legend has a source," Sam says, trying to hide his smile. "A place where it all began."
"What about the scratches and the tire marks and the invisible man?" Dean asks, still obviously annoyed.
"Maybe the Hook Man isn't a man at all," Sam suggests. "What if it's some kind of spirit?"
"Here you go," the librarian says as she plops down a box onto their table. "Arrest records going back to 1851."
She places the second box down, trying not to look too curious.
"Thank you," Elena says, the epitome of good-manners.
The librarian smiles at them, then leaves taking her cart with her.
"This is how you spent four good years of your life, huh?" Dean asks, staring grimly at the boxes.
"Actually it was only a little over three," Sam points out.
"Insanity," Dean replies.
Sam rubs the dust off his hands, reaching for a box as Elena opens the other one.
"Welcome to higher education."
Elena laughs at that, handing off a stack of files to Dean who groans dramatically.
For a while they work in silence, reading through files and setting aside anything unusual. It's kind of nice, but there's a question itching in Sam's mind, and he can't help it.
"Did you want to go to college?" he asks Elena.
She looks up at him, taken aback.
"Um," she says.
It takes Sam a second to realize that Dean is holding his breath.
"Yeah, sure," she finally answers. "I came from that kind of family, though," she tells him.
"You did?" he asks, slightly surprised. He knows about the hunting side, but can't quite cross hunting and college in his mind.
She nods.
"My dad was a doctor, and my mom was a historian, she mostly ended up using her degree for stuff related to our town, archives and the like, but she loved it."
Sam nods kind of dumbly.
"Before she died my Aunt Jenna was getting her masters, we're definitely that kind of family."
He clears his throat.
"What, uh, where you interested in studying?" he asks.
"I wanted to be a writer," she says, no hesitation. Then she pauses, considers it. "Or a doctor, like my dad."
Sam studies her.
"Do you ever think you might go back to school?" he asks.
A thought occurs to him before she answers.
"Did you even get to finish?" He's only just realized he doesn't know if she'd been able to finish high school.
She nods.
"Uh yeah, I had to take a ton of tests, but the principal let me graduate with my class," she explains. "I just didn't go back for graduation. I guess my diploma's probably somewhere back at the house. I don't really know, we never went back."
Sam nods, feeling some kind of uneasy sadness for her. Her life has gotten so far off track, but nothing in her countenance seems like she regrets any of it.
"Hey Gilbert, remember how you they made you send in paper copies of all your final papers?" Dean's finally speaking again. "You cut your hand open during a hunt and ended up having to send in your Macbeth paper covered in bloodstains."
Elena laughs.
"Yeah and I had a panic attack and cried, good times."
Sam snorts a little, because it sounds so much like actual college.
"A bloodstained Macbeth paper? I hope you got extra credit."
Elena gestures at him, indignant.
"Right?!"
She turns to Dean suddenly, pointing at him.
"Remember when I was taking my Calculus test and you kept saying that the answer to every question was 69?"
Sam chokes on his own spit, trying not to laugh too loudly.
"How many times did you accidentally write 69?" he manages to choke out.
The look on Elena's face says everything, undoubtedly more than once.
Dean is grinning from ear to ear, looking incredibly proud of himself.
They're all laughing now, and it feels much better than the awkward tension his initial question had created.
After a moment they all return to their work.
Elena inhales.
"No," she says finally.
Sam looks up from his police report.
She shrugs. "I don't think about going back, not anymore."
Dean doesn't look as surprised by her answer as Sam thought he would, but then again, Dean seems to generally know what Elena's about.
They settle back into the long process of sorting through all the records looking for anything resembling any variation of the Hook Man legend.
Sam ends up standing up after a while. Elena is sitting on the floor her legs crossed under the full skirt of her dress, playing with the chain of her necklace. It occurs to Sam that he's never seen the pendant, it's always tucked away under the collar of her shirt. He puts that thought aside for another time. Dean seems to be the only one capable of sitting like a normal human being.
"Hey, check this out," Sam says eventually.
Dean and Elena both perk up, giving him their attention.
"1862, a preacher named Jacob Karns was arrested for murder."
Dean gets up to go read along over Sam's shoulder.
"He was so angry over the red-light district in town that one night he killed thirteen prostitutes."
Elena is standing now too, leaning on the other side of bookshelf with her back partially to them as she twists her hair up into a bun. She makes a face.
"Jesus," she mutters. She turns around to face them properly, propping her forearms on top of the bookshelf to lean closer to them.
"Right here," Sam points out. "'Some of the deceased were found in their beds, sheets soaked in blood. Others suspended upside down from the limbs of trees as a warning against the sins of the flesh.'"
Elena grimaces.
"Well he's a real life psychopath," she says.
Sam nods in agreement.
Dean has been rifling through the other papers in the file. He comes across a piece of paper with the drawing of a man with a hook for a hand. Quickly he reads the write up accompanying it.
"Get this, the murder weapon?" He holds the paper so Elena can see it too.
"Looks like the preacher lost his hand in an accident, had it replaced with a silver hook." Dean points to a detailed sketch of the hook by itself at the bottom of the paper.
"Some are born urban legends, some become urban legends, and some physically alter their bodies in order to achieve the honor," Elena deadpans.
Sam has to laugh at her rewrite of the famous quote.
Dean smirks at her smart-mouthed tendencies.
Sam points out another part of the report.
"Look where all this happened."
"9 Mile Road," Dean says.
"Same place where the frat boy was killed," Elena continues.
Sam nods.
"Nice job, Dr. Venkman," Dean tells Sam, teasing him.
Elena snorts. "Ghostbusters? Dean, Really?"
"Always," he responds seriously before switching back to the case. "Let's check it out."
"Sure, but I need pants," Elena says.
He looks at her dress, which is barely wrinkled despite her time spent sitting on the floor.
"Ah yes, yes, you do."
After Elena changes into something more practical they head out to 9 Mile Road. Once they're parked, Dean heads to the trunk, pulling out a shotgun and handing it off to Sam.
"There you go."
"If it is a spirit, buckshot won't do much good," Sam points out skeptically.
"Yeah. Rock salt," Dean replies, short and to the point. He holds out a handful of shotgun cartridges.
"Hmm, salt being a spirit deterrent," Sam says, trying not to let it show how impressed he is at their dad and Dean's creative thinking.
"Yeah," Dean says, searching around in the trunk for a few more cartridges, a flashlight, and a coil of rope. "It won't kill 'em, but it'll slow 'em down."
Dean closes the trunk. He loops the rope around his arm, handing off the flashlight to Elena. They start walking, Elena and Dean side by side with Sam just behind them.
"That's pretty good, you and Dad think of this?"
"I told you, you don't have to be a college graduate to be a genius," Dean replies. "I think some of the ideas came from Elena's father though," he adds.
Sam looks at Elena, surprised.
"Uh, sort of," she replies after a second. "Your dad told me about it once."
Both boys give her an expectant look.
"So my family primarily dealt with vampires," she starts. "A few years ago the Johns – our dads, that is – were talking about some of the precautions that the Founders' Council had come up with to deal with vampires. One of them was wooden bullets. Sure, they won't kill a vampire but they can slow them down. If your aim's good enough, a shot between the eyes can knock them out."
Sam blinks.
"Founders' Council?" he asks.
"A secret organization dedicated to protecting my hometown from supernatural beings, vampires in particular," is her answer.
"Cool," Sam replies, a little dumbstruck.
Elena nods.
"Yeah, well, your dad thought the wooden bullets were brilliant, gave him a few ideas of his own."
Elena's phone rings
Dean stops.
"Who is it?" he asks.
"Dunno, but it's a New York area code, it could be Jeremy, maybe he lost his phone," she replies, looking worried. She hands the flashlight to Dean. "I'll be right back."
"Hello?" she says, answering her phone, already walking back towards the Impala.
After a moment they hear a noise coming from the other direction.
Sam raises the shot gun.
They pause to listen.
Footsteps crunch through the foliage.
"Over there," Dean whispers to Sam.
Sam points the shotgun in the direction he indicated.
A few seconds later, a sheriff's deputy comes out of the woods demanding he put the shotgun down and that both of them lie down on the ground. Elena is just out of his line of vision and she stays there.
"Saved your ass," Dean announces happily as he and Sam leave the sheriff's station. "Talked the sheriff down to a fine, dude. I'm Matlock."
"But how?" Sam asks, genuinely impressed. Dean had been waiting with coffee when he'd been released and Sam is gratefully drinking his.
"Told him you were a dumbass pledge and that we were hazing you." Dean snickers a little at the end.
"What about the shotgun?" Sam can't help the skepticism.
"I said that you were hunting ghosts, and that spirits are repelled by rock salt." Dean grins. "You know, typical hell week prank."
Sam shakes his head.
"And he believed you?"
Dean's response is immediate.
"Well you look like a dumbass pledge."
Sam rolls his eyes.
"Where's Elena?" Sam asks. He'd noticed instantly that she wasn't with his brother waiting for him, but he'd figured she was still sweet-talking the sheriff, it was unusual for Dean to have to bother with his long-winded tall tales when people often just gave Elena whatever she wanted.
Dean sighs.
"Uh, yeah, that call last night was from the emergency room, Jeremy broke his arm last night," he explains. "She's back at the motel room right now, on the phone with him."
Sam winces in sympathy.
"He's okay?" he asks.
Dean nods.
"Yeah, he's fine, but she's his big sister, it took me a while to talk her down from getting on a plane to go to New York immediately to be with him," he answers.
Sam smiles a little.
"That sounds like her."
Dean nods his head in fond exasperation.
Sam hesitates for a second.
"So motel room instead of frat house?" Sam asks as innocently as he can.
Dean snorts.
"Nobody in their right mind leaves Elena Gilbert alone in a frat house, let alone lets her spend the night there," he answers.
Sam exhales a laugh.
"Good call," he replies. "You know, you've been kinda weird about the whole frat boys thing," he points out after a moment.
Dean gives him a look.
"What do you mean?" he asks.
"Dean, you look homicidal anytime any of them even breathe in her direction."
Dean snorts.
"They're doing a lot more than breathing," he mutters darkly.
Sam points at him.
"That's exactly what I mean," he says. "They're dumb frat boys, Elena can handle them. You shouldn't care so much that they pay attention to her, she barely notices unless it's unavoidable."
Dean shoots him annoyed look at his persistence on the topic.
"Yeah well, it's unavoidable to me," he replies shortly.
Sam raises an eyebrow.
"Look, Dean, you can't really expect me to not wonder what exactly is going on between the two of you when you act like this," he points out logically.
Dean huffs in annoyance.
"Jesus, Sammy, I don't know why you're so stuck on this. Yeah, maybe Elena can handle 'em but do you really think Dad wants Elena to have to waste her time on fending off frat losers?"
Sam gives Dean a disbelieving look.
"So that's your excuse. Dad doesn't want Elena to get hit on so you pull that territorial bullshit and keep them all away from her?"
Dean glares at him now.
"Yes," he enunciates. "It works, doesn't it?" He looks at Sam pointedly. "We're here to do a case, not to let Elena be offered up as the main dish at a frat party."
Sam gives him a disbelieving look.
Dean exhales.
"Jesus Christ, just ask me whatever it is you've been wanting to ask me since friggin' Jericho."
Sam doesn't hesitate.
"The two of you don't act like just friends. I don't know Elena as well, so I can't say what her feelings are for sure, but you definitely don't treat her like any girl I've ever seen you with before."
Dean laughs then, almost relaxing.
"Of course I don't. I don't know shit about those other girls. I know Elena, she's my partner, of course I don't treat her like some one night stand." Dean sounds perfectly casual now.
It only serves to make Sam more frustrated.
"Is it really so hard to believe that we're friends, Sammy?" Dean asks almost pityingly.
Sam almost buys it, but he remembers what the Shapeshifter said all too well. Sure, it wasn't Dean, but it knew everything inside Dean's head, and Sam doesn't think he was making any of the things he said about Dean's feelings about Elena up. Maybe twisting them so they're a darker version, but still with a grain of truth in it all.
"So you're telling me that absolutely nothing has ever happened between you and Elena?" Sam asks, watching Dean's reaction carefully.
Dean shrugs.
Sam takes another drink of his coffee, waiting for his reply.
"I took off her pants once?" Dean offers casually.
Sam does a perfect movie spit take of his coffee.
"What?" he asks, sputtering. Somehow, he really didn't expect anything like that.
Dean just laughs.
"Dude, it was to save her life. She got hit by a manticore's tail," Dean explains. "It got her on her inner thigh, left leg. I had to take off her pants so I could cauterize the wound so she wouldn't die from the venom."
Sam gives him a dirty look.
"You should ask to see the scar sometime, it's wicked cool," Dean says cheerfully.
Sam considers him carefully.
Dean just smiles back at him, barely a hint of satisfaction at pulling one over on him shows in his pretend blissful ignorance at Sam's ire.
Sam opens his mouth, unable to resist one last swing.
"Are you telling me you had to sit between Elena's bare thighs and cauterize her wound when she was half-naked?"
Dean's grin drops immediately.
A group of deputies bursts from sheriff's department behind them, distracting Sam from his victory.
They're all screeching off in their patrol cars, sirens screaming, before either of them can fully fathom.
"What's that about?" Sam asks just as Dean's phone rings.
He ignores the question to answer his phone.
"Elena," he says, answering Sam's unasked question.
He turns slightly to his side while he talks to her, but Sam can see how serious his expression is. He has a funny feeling that it has something to do with the frantic departure of the deputies.
Dean mostly listens, nodding a bit.
"We'll meet you there," he promises.
He hangs up, turning to Sam.
"Sorority house," he answers before Sam can ask.
They drive past the sorority house on their way to Elena. There are emergency vehicles all over the place, and Sam catches a glimpse of Lori sitting in an ambulance with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. The look on her face is devastating.
Elena's only about a block away, standing next to a fire hydrant. She's dressed for a run, athletic shorts, tank top and her well-worn running shoes. Sam wonders at this for a moment. He doesn't think he's ever seen her run during the day.
Every time she's shaken him awake, dragging him away from a nightmare to run until he can't even think let alone dream, it's been pitch black, the earliest hours of the morning.
Dean pulls over next to her. Both brothers get out of the car.
"What happened?" Dean asks. He raises an eyebrow at her outfit, confirming Sam's suspicion that it's unusual.
"I was out for a run," she starts, then quickly backtracks when she sees their confusion. "I needed something to do besides worry about Jeremy."
Sam nods, this makes more sense.
Dean, however, shakes his head, muttering to himself as he goes around to the trunk of the car. When he comes back he's holding out one of his flannels to Elena.
She gives him a look as she takes it from him.
"They're everywhere," he mutters darkly.
Sam instantly knows he's referring to the frat boys. He stifles a snicker, but does a cursory glance around. Not one in sight.
Elena rolls her eyes but puts on Dean's flannel, leaving it open. Buttoned, it would easily cover her shorts completely, giving the illusion that she isn't wearing anything else.
"I was out for a run, and I went past the sorority house, Lori's roommate is dead."
She explains as much as she was able to discern before they got there.
Dean nods gravely.
"So why are we meeting over here?" Sam asks.
Elena smirks a little. She points behind her.
"We can get to the back of the sorority house through there."
Dean grins.
"Are you saying we're going to break into a sorority house?"
Elena rolls her eyes.
"No breaking, just, climbing in through an open window."
Dean is still grinning when he makes his way over to the opening in the bushes Elena had pointed to earlier.
Sam groans.
"It's like Christmas for him."
Elena laughs and nods, turning to follow Dean, with Sam trailing after her.
Something occurs to Sam as they approach the empty, keeping low and hugging the side of the house in order to stay out of sight.
"Why would the Hook Man come here? This is a long way from 9 Mile road," Sam points out.
Dean shrugs.
"Maybe he's not haunting the scene of his crime. Maybe it's about something else."
Two of the sisters walk out of the house, forcing the three of them to duck.
"Dude, sorority girls," Dean says, utterly thrilled.
Sam isn't paying him any attention, already climbing.
"Think we'll get to see a naked pillow fight?"
Elena thumps him in the back of the head.
"Their sorority sister just died," Elena points out dryly.
She shoves Dean in front of her so he can give Sam a boost up when he doesn't have place for a footing. She goes up next, nimbly pulling herself up after Sam.
There's a small balcony and an open window, they all duck through it as quickly as they can, hoping none of the people crowding the driveway look up and notice them.
Sam and Dean squabble about being quiet until Elena pinches both of them, impatient with their childish bickering.
They're inside a large walk in closet. As luck would have it, it's just across from Lori's room.
"Remind me why Elena didn't go undercover in the sorority house?" Dean asks, still stuck on his sorority girl fantasy.
Sam rolls his eyes at his brother's one track mind, and where it always seems to lead.
"Because the first victim was a frat boy," Elena points out dryly.
She sees the officer leaving the crime scene, so she slips out into the hallway.
Sam takes this moment to needle his brother a little.
"Sorority girls probably like Elena too," he points out slyly. "Remember Charlie?"
Dean glares back at him, remembering all too well the sweet little high school girl who'd given his Elena her number. Sam grins at him, following him out the door.
They creep across the hall to the crime scene.
Elena is standing just within the door, staring at the wall with wide eyes.
In crude, bloody writing, a message is carved.
"'Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light'?" Sam reads aloud.
"I love it," Elena says dryly.
"That's right out of the legend," Sam reminds her.
Elena nods.
"I know," she replies grimly, her eyes still on the words in front of them.
'Yeah, that's classic Hook Man, all right," Dean agrees. "It's definitely a spirit," he adds, touching his nose.
Elena nods, wrinkling hers just a little.
"Yeah, I've never smelled ozone this strong before," Sam says.
"Me neither," Dean says, looking out the window.
"I have," Elena says.
Sam looks at her.
"I didn't know what it meant back then," is all she's willing to explain. Her eyes are still fixed on the words.
Sam frowns, looking back at them, wondering why she's so intent on it. It only takes him a moment to understand.
"Hey, come here," Sam says to Dean.
Dean complies.
Sam points to the symbol carved underneath the words.
"Does that look familiar to you?"
Dean looks at it.
He reaches out to gently smack Elena on the arm.
"Speak up when you scent something, bloodhound," he says, partially chastising her.
Sam nods in agreement.
Elena gives Dean an affronted look.
"Did you just compare me to a dog?" she asks, clearly offended.
Dean gives her a disbelieving look. She glares back. He rolls his eyes at her.
"I meant you're really good at this and I don't want you to keep quiet when you notice something before us," he explains.
She relaxes a little.
"Fine, whatever," she replies.
Dean reaches out and tugs on her ponytail in an unspoken rebuke.
She glares at him again.
Sam swallows his groan at their juvenile flirting tactics.
"It's the same symbol," Sam confirms back at the Impala. He points it out on the stack of copied papers from the library. "Seems like it is the spirit of Jacob Karns."
Dean nods, all business.
"All right, well let's find the dude's grave, salt and burn the bones, and put him down."
Elena's reading the papers.
"'After execution, Jacob Karns was laid to rest in Old North Cemetery in an unmarked grave,'" Elena reads aloud.
"Super," Dean says sarcastically.
Two guys are walking by.
"Sup Elena," One of them says.
Dean glares after them.
Elena considers them for a moment.
"Nope, never met 'em before in my life," she concludes.
Sam laughs.
"We are never bringing you back to a college campus ever," Dean mutters under his breath as he makes for the driver's seat.
Elena rolls her eyes at him fondly.
"Okay, so we know it's Jacob Karns," Sam says, switching back to the case. "But we still don't know where he'll manifest next, or why."
Dean plucks the ticket he's received for parking in front of a fire hydrant with very little care for it.
"I'll take a wild guess about why," Dean says. "I think Elena's new friend Lori has something to do with this."
Elena considers this.
She sighs. "I can't even make normal friends at college." She climbs into the backseat.
Sam looks back at her solemnly.
"Elena, you don't even go to college and you still can't make normal friends at college."
"Man, you've been holding out on me, this college thing is awesome!"
They're at a frat party, and it's clear to Sam that Dean is in heaven. He tries not to roll his eyes.
"Just wait," Sam says dryly.
He can already see the growing group of guys staring at them, more specifically Elena.
Elena doesn't look any different than she normally does, but that's kind of the point. Even in jeans and an old t-shirt she's still a complete knockout, and Dean knows that better than anyone.
Sam smirks a little remembering the moment earlier, in their motel room when Elena had been unable to find her favorite pair of shorts. A well-loved pair of cut-offs that had saved Dean's ass many, many times. Dean had shrugged at her inquiry of when he'd last seen them, but Sam had a sneaking suspicion Elena would easily find them – as soon as they weren't any frat boys in sight.
Just like Sam predicted, a guy materializes, shoving his overly long bangs out of his face.
"Hey, you wanna dance?" he asks Elena.
She gives him an amused look, opening her mouth to answer.
Dean cuts her off.
"Nope, she absolutely does not." He smiles without humor, so really it's just a predatory flash of teeth that sends the guy scampering back to the group.
Elena cocks her head to the side.
"What if I want to dance?" she asks, more curious than annoyed.
"You want to dance to this noise?" Dean asks her incredulously.
Sam both wants to laugh and hit his head against a brick wall.
She considers the dance music pumping through the speakers.
"Yeah okay, it's kind of bad."
Dean has his frat boy alarm back on now that he recognizes the true danger of a frat party. A guy coming from the opposite direction of the floppy-haired one is heading for them now. Dean rolls his eyes, swings his arm over Elena's shoulder, tucking her into his side as close as he can. The guy stops, then changes course to where the keg is. Sam can see the look of complete satisfaction on Dean's face.
"Right because fuck personal space," Sam hears Elena mutter to herself after finding herself abruptly dragged into Dean's embrace.
He shakes his head, wondering how she isn't used to the fact that Dean is always constantly touching her and always constantly aware of when other men are interested in her.
"Well are we gonna actually talk about the case or just stand here?" Elena asks finally.
Sam shrugs. "It's loud."
Elena considers this for a second.
"Outside?" she suggests.
Dean nods.
Between the brother's combined height and bulk it's not particularly difficult to maneuver their way through the crowd and out the back door onto the patio.
"So how is the Hook Man tied up with Lori?" Elena asks Sam as she leans back against the wall, Sam and Dean standing in front of her.
Sam pulls out some papers, handing them over to the two of them.
"1932, 'Clergyman Arrested for Murder'," Dean reads out loud.
"1967, 'Seminarian Held in Hippie Rampage'," Elena continues.
"There's a pattern here," Sam says, unable to contain himself. "In both cases the suspect was a man of religion who openly preached against immorality – and then found himself wanted for killings he claimed were the work of an invisible force. Killings carried out with – get this – a sharp instrument."
It's early March, so there's a definitive chill in the air, and Elena barely shivers before Dean's removing his outer layer and wrapping it around her. She gives him a grateful look.
"What's the connection to Lori?" Dean asks somewhat absentmindedly.
Both Sam and Elena give him a look for his obliviousness. Sam's is more out of habit than anything else, he can clearly see in front of him where his brother's actual attention is focused on.
"A man of religion who openly preaches against immorality," Sam repeats.
Comprehension dawns on Dean's face.
"Except this time instead of saving the whole town, he's just trying to save his only daughter," Elena says, bringing Sam's argument full circle.
"Reverend Sorenson," says Dean. "So do we think he's summoning the spirit?"
Sam considers this.
"Maybe."
Elena shrugs.
"Or you know how a poltergeist can haunt a person instead of a place?" Sam suggests.
"The spirit latches onto the Reverend's repressed emotions, feeds off them, yeah okay." Dean leans against the wall beside Elena.
"Without the Reverend ever even knowing it," Sam concludes grimly.
Elena is still thoughtful. After a moment she pulls out her phone, texts someone.
"What are you doing?" Sam asks.
"Texting Lori," she answers. "Asking if she wants to hang out tonight."
Dean nods.
"Smart, someone should keep an eye on her."
Sam frowns.
"Lori gets your number when Charlie didn't?"
Elena shrugs.
"We're supposed to be classmates, if I gave her your number it would've been weird."
She looks up at him and grins.
"Or exactly what she wants."
Dean suddenly looks delighted.
"No," he says, sounding ecstatic.
Elena nods. "Oh yeah, the reverend's daughter totally has a crush on our Sam."
Sam can feel himself turning pink.
Dean's grin is big enough to make the Grinch's cheeks ache.
"Aww, Sammy, that's so adorably PG."
Sam gives him a half-hearted shove.
Elena's phone vibrates before she can chime in with her teasing.
"Well, you two go get ready for some grave-digging, because Lori like totally wants to get away from her dad," she tells them, clearly borrowing a turn of phrase from the other girl's text. "We're going to the movies."
Dean raises an eyebrow.
"She's not happy with her Holy Father?" he asks.
Elena shrugs.
"Seems like it, I guess I'll hear all about it in 20 minutes."
Elena considers this for a moment.
"Do you think there's enough time for a keg stand?"
Sam laughs purely out of surprise.
"Allegedly she's the undefeated keg stand champion of Mystic Falls, but I haven't seen any proof," Dean tells him. The look he gives Elena is pure challenge.
"Whoa, guys, no," Sam says immediately, knowing better than to let them get started. "Elena you are not going to the movies drunk."
Elena gives him an affronted look.
"I can't believe you think one keg stand would actually get me drunk."
Sam shakes his head, not dignifying it with a response.
"No keg stands," he says firmly.
"Killjoy," Dean and Elena chorus together.
After they drop Elena off at the movie theater they head for the cemetery.
Following his brother through the gates, Sam takes a moment to reflect on the amount of time he's spent in graveyards at night.
Dean must see some reflection of his thoughts in his face.
"Feels like home, huh?" he offers ironically.
Sam snorts, nodding in grim agreement.
They continue on in silence, heading for an older part of the cemetery.
"Who do you think has spent more time in graveyards, us or Elena?" Sam asks, mostly joking.
Dean laughs.
"Us, probably," he decides, pauses, then adds. "But the time she spent in 'em probably meant more to her."
Sam looks over at him, trying his best to avoid running into any tombstones.
"Why's that?"
Dean's quiet for a second.
"After her parents died, she used to go to graveyard where they were buried, just to sit with them."
Now it's Sam's turn to be quiet.
"Oh," he says finally.
"Yup," Dean's reply is short.
Sam decides now is a good time to focus on finding Jacob Karns' grave.
"So where exactly do you think they keep their unmarked graves?" he asks, swinging his flashlight across the tombstones.
"Where everyone keeps the shit they don't care about."
Sam looks back at Dean.
"Out of sight, out of mind," Dean reminds him.
Sam nods in agreement, it's a fair point.
"To the darkest, creepiest corners it is then."
Dean laughs.
"We could be at the movies right now," Sam says as his heel lands in another gopher hole.
Dean snorts.
"We could be doing keg stands right now," is his swift retort. Another step and he walks directly into a spiderweb.
"Fuck you, eight-legged demon," Dean mutters as he swipes at his face.
Sam does his best to smother his laughter.
Eventually they find the right dark, creepy corner. There are just enough unmarked graves to give them pause, briefly debating burning and salting all of them before quickly abandoning the idea, that would take more time than they have before sunrise. Eventually Dean catches sight of the familiar symbol associated with the Hook Man etched on one of the grave-markers.
Just as they're getting ready to dig, Sam's phone rings.
Dean makes an impatient gesture, telling him to hurry up.
"It's Elena," Sam says, surprised when he sees her name.
"Answer it."
"Elena? What's up? How's the movie?" Sam asks.
"I'm in the bathroom," Elena says, ignoring everything he said. "Listen, Lori told me why she's mad at her dad, he's having an affair with a married woman, Sam. I don't think it's him Jacob is attached to. I have a really bad feeling, one of you needs to go to Lori's and check on the good reverend."
Sam takes a deep breath, trying to process everything she just said.
"Ah yeah, okay, I'll fill Dean in and then head to Lori's, just text me her address."
Dean gives him an expectant look, but Sam just waves his hand at him, wordlessly telling him to be patient.
"Thanks Sam, I will. It's barely up the road from the cemetery, you should be fine walking. I have to go, Lori's probably wondering where I am, be careful."
Elena hangs up before he can reply.
"Well?" Dean asks impatiently.
Sam shoves his phone in his pocket.
"I have to go," he says apologetically.
"Dude, no," Dean says right away, not looking forward to digging by himself. "Why?"
"Elena got Lori to tell her what she was fighting with her dad about," Sam tells him. "The good reverend? He's having an affair with a married woman."
"Well that's not very godly of him," Dean says.
Sam nods grimly.
"Yeah, Elena doesn't think it's him anymore, she wants me to go check on him."
Dean grudgingly lets him leave.
"I was just walking home from the library, and then I heard a commotion coming from one of the house," Sam says.
The Sheriff is interviewing him and diligently copying down what he's saying.
He'd barely gotten there in time to deal with the Hook Man before it could finish off Reverend Sorenson.
He'd called 911 and then Elena so she could tell Lori.
Sam is standing outside Reverend Sorenson's hospital room, making his statement. Behind the officer, Sam can see Elena and Lori sitting down side by side. Lori is fast asleep against Elena's shoulder. Elena is texting someone, probably Dean.
Sure enough, Elena looks up after a text, catching Sam's eye deliberately. She cants her head towards the entrance, careful not to disturb Lori. Sam nods, understanding that Dean is finally here.
"Excuse me, Sheriff," Sam says politely. "My brother just got here."
He's already described the man he "saw", so the sheriff graciously lets him leave.
Sam heads through the doors just past the girls, and sure enough the two deputies are preventing Dean from coming any further.
"He's my brother," Sam tells them.
Reluctantly they let Sam through.
"You okay?" Dean asks as soon as they're out of earshot.
Sam nods.
"Yeah, I'm fine, Lori was a wreck, but Elena's calmed her down, she's asleep now."
Dean nods.
"What the hell happened?"
"Hook Man."
"You saw him?" Dean asks, disbelief evident in his tone.
Sam nods emphatically.
"Why didn't you torch the bones?"
Dean gives him a weird look.
"What are you talking about? I did. Are you sure it's the spirit of Jacob Karns?"
Sam shakes his head.
"It sure as hell looked like him."
Dean lets out a heavy sigh of exasperation.
"Elena said she had something to tell us," Sam says, recalling the hurried conversation he'd had with Elena before the Sheriff found him.
"Well hopefully she has some insight because I'm all out of ideas."
Sam nods in agreement. He leads Dean through the double doors to where Elena and Lori are.
As luck would have it, Lori is sitting up besides Elena, awake and mostly alert.
"It's so nice of you to come, Dean," Lori says, hiding a yawn that threatens to unhinge her jaw behind her hand.
"Yeah of course." Dean nods empathetically, sitting down next to Elena. He draws her hand into his lap, lacing their fingers together.
Sam smirks into his hand as he pretends to stretch, choosing to stay standing.
Lori yawns again.
Elena glances at Sam and Dean knowingly.
"You need coffee, Lori," Elena says. "And not whatever they have in the cafeteria, real coffee. Let us go get you some."
Lori shakes her head.
"Oh no, that's too much, you don't need to do that."
Elena reaches out with her free hand to grasp Lori's hand.
"We want to," she tells the younger girl gently but firmly. "Sam can stay here with you, Dean and I will go."
Elena gives Sam a significant look, and luckily they finally seem to be getting the hang of each other because he gets it right away.
"Yeah, of course," Sam says. "I just need to call my professor," he adds apologetically. "Explain why I wasn't in class this morning."
Lori nods in understanding.
"Yeah, of course. Thank you, so much," she says, adding, "All of you."
Sam follows Dean and Elena out of the hospital after Lori reassures him she'll be fine on her own for a little while.
Outside, Dean leads them to where the Impala is parked.
"So what's up? Sam said you had something to tell us."
Elena nods, and then just leans back against the Impala and sighs.
"So yeah, Jacob Karns is probably reacting to Lori's judgement," she says this in a way that sounds both casual and exhausted.
She sighs again, this time lowering her upper body to sprawl across the hood of the Impala.
Surprisingly Dean doesn't scold her, instead leaning his hip against the front grill beside hers.
"Excuse me?"
Elena squints against the sunlight, her eyes half-closed.
"She was telling me about her dad's affair last night, she was really upset, and then she said something, and it just sort of clicked."
Sam leans his elbows and upper body on the hood, perpendicular to Elena, so he blocks the sun on her face and she can stop squinting. She gives him a grateful grin. Maybe Dean is just as tired as them or maybe he's genuinely taking pity on them for having been up for most of the night, either way, he says nothing.
"What did she say?"
"'If you do something wrong, you will get punished,' and that's a direct quote."
Dean lets out a low whistle.
"Yeah, Sammy I think your future bride might be a bit of a disciplinarian. Saves you from doing the hard stuff. Your children will be well-trained."
Sam shoots him a dirty look that he returns with a grin.
Elena ignores both of them.
"She's conflicted, and Jacob Karn's ghost is latching onto her repressed emotions and doing the punishing for her."
Dean and Sam exchange a look.
"Rich comes on too strong," Sam reminds them.
Dean nods. "Taylor tries to make her into a party girl."
"And her dad has an affair," Elena finishes.
Dean shakes his head.
"Remind me not to piss this girl off," he says.
Elena sits up, so Sam does too.
"I'm really glad she likes me," she finally admits.
Sam laughs, feeling a little guilty for it. Lori seems like a sweet girl, albeit a bit judgmental, then again, what can you expect from a reverend's daughter?
"What's not to like?" Dean asks affectionately.
Elena rolls her eyes but grins at him.
"It's just because she doesn't really know me, she'd judge me too if she knew how many shots we did in Minneapolis last weekend," she reminds him.
Dean laughs.
"Yeah that was awesome," he says in fond reminiscence. "I think you broke some kind of record."
Elena starts putting up her hair, which is always an event.
"Yeah well, I have been told that I have the ability to unhinge my jaw like a snake to consume alcohol," she says distractedly, making Dean laugh again.
He clears his throat, sobering up as he remembers the topic at hand.
"But I burned those bones, and I buried them in salt. Why didn't that stop him?"
Sam shakes his head.
"You must've missed something," he says.
Elena gives him a skeptical look.
Dean on the other hand, considers it before he shakes his head.
"No, I burned everything in that coffin."
"Did you get the hook?" Sam asks.
Dean looks over at him.
"The hook?"
Sam takes a moment to consider the implication behind his own question before he answers Dean's.
"It was the murder weapon, and in a way it was part of him."
Dean leans back against the Impala, leaning into Elena more than just a little. She puts her arm around his shoulders.
"So like the bones, the hook is a source of his power," Dean theorizes.
Sam considers Dean and Elena for a moment, leaned against the Impala, ridiculously attractive and somehow made more attractive by each other's prescence. He could take a picture and sell it as a classic American postcard.
"So if we find the hook," Elena says.
"We stop the Hook Man," the brothers say together.
"We have to go back to the library," Elena says mournfully.
"Actually you and Dean have to go get Lori coffee. I have to go keep her company until you get back with a stellar excuse as to why we all have to leave her there."
Elena considers this.
"We could just take her with us to the library."
Both brothers turn to stare at her. She shrugs.
"We tell her we're in a class discussing local folklore, that explains all the research. She can focus on her own studies. Who knows? Maybe it'll get her mind off all of this."
Sam is the first to speak.
"Well I guess Lori is going to the library with us."
In the car on the way to get coffee, Dean turns to Elena at a stoplight.
"For the record, next time, I would like to be the one to take the cute girl to the movies, and you can do the grave-digging."
Elena laughs at him, then hits him with her best Bambi eyes.
"You sure about that?"
Dean glares at her playfully.
"Brat," he grumbles, because they both know she's irresistible.
She laughs again.
"Tell you what, when we're done with this case we can take Sam to the movies."
Dean considers this grudgingly.
"Do we have to take Sammy?"
Elena laughs in disbelief.
"Hey, he needs a night off, too," she reminds him.
"I know, I know," Dean acquiesces. "But without Sam it's everything I'm asking for, me and a pretty girl going to the movies." He grins at her.
She rolls her eyes at him fondly.
"Dean, this is me you're talking to, I know you say that to all the girls," she says laughingly, completely unbothered by his constant need to flirt.
He shrugs.
"Sure I do, I only mean it with you, though."
Being in the library researching a supernatural case is always a little weird. Doing it with the alleged cause of said supernatural case sitting at their table studying for a Civics test fully takes the cake.
Luckily, Lori doesn't seem to be a curious person by nature, or maybe she's just too upset by her recent misfortune, either way, she doesn't ask them about their so-called local folklore assignment.
Dean is delighted to discover that Lori's newfound reputation as a murder suspect prevents people (frat boys) from approaching their table to talk (flirt) with Elena.
Lori stares mournfully at a group of her girls whispering and staring.
"You guys are the only people who will talk to me," she says softly.
All three of them turn their attention to her.
Elena reaches out to squeeze her hand in comfort.
"Hey, it'll pass," Dean says. "It's college, they'll find a new thing to gossip about in a week or two."
She smiles half-heartedly.
"I don't know what I'd do without the three of you."
She goes back to her studying, but the aforementioned three exchange slightly guilty looks.
It could only take them so long to wrap up the job, and then they'd be back on the road.
Finally Elena shrugs, they can only do what they can do for her. The other two get the message, and all three go back to their research.
Two hours in Lori begs off, saying that she's tired and needs to go home to rest.
It gets a little more relaxing when they can at least whisper about the case without giving it away to her. Dean makes Elena move to sit between him and Sam.
Sam says nothing when Dean strategically angles his chair and Elena's to face each other ever so slightly. If Dean wants to manipulate their body language to keep the frat boys away, it's his business. Sam's just gonna remember all of it the next time he's alone with his brother and he feels like bothering him about Elena.
"Here's something, I think," Dean says a couple hours later.
Sam and Elena look up expectantly.
"Logbook, Iowa State Penitentiary. 'Karns, Jacob: personal affects, disposition thereof.'"
"Does it mention the hook?" Sam asks as Dean continues reading.
"Yeah, maybe," Dean says distractedly. "'Upon execution all earthly items shall be remanded to the prisoner's house of worship, St. Barnabas Church.'"
Dean stops.
"That's where Lori's father preaches," Elena says.
"Yes it is," Dean says.
"Where Lori lives," Sam adds.
Elena nods.
"Maybe that's why the Hook Man's been haunting reverends and reverends' daughters for the past two hundred years," Dean speculates.
Sam considers this.
"Yeah but if the hook were at the church or Lori's house, don't you think someone might've seen it? I mean, a blood-stained, silver-handled hook?"
Dean looks at Elena.
"Check the church records," Dean says, already getting up to go find them.
Elena looks over at Sam.
"I want it on record that my only college friend is not in fact so judgmental she summons evil ghosts."
Sam laughs.
"She just has the great misfortune of living in a shitty house."
Sam laughs a little harder.
"Well you know what they say, it's all about-"
"Location, location, location," Elena joins in with him.
For a moment they just grin at each other, stupid silly in their exhaustion.
"My god, we're tired," Sam says finally.
Elena giggles and nods. "So tired."
Sam finds it a couple hours later.
They've moved to a couple of arm chairs in a remote corner, Elena finally bowing to her exhaustion, something that's almost never seen. She's curled up on top of Dean in his armchair, who looks more content with this arrangement than Sam has ever seen him. Discreetly, Sam has taken more than a couple of pictures of the two of them like that, in case Sam has to resort to other methods in order to get his brother to admit he has more than friendly feelings for the girl currently curled up in his lap.
"St. Barnabas Donations, 1862, 'received: silver-handled hook from state penitentiary. Reforged.'"
Sam looks over at Dean, who's set down his own book to smooth Elena's hair out of his face as well as her own.
"They melted it down, made it into something else."
Dean sighs as he sits up straight, starting the process of waking Elena up so they can head for the church.
Dean pulls up behind the church through the graveyard's road.
Exiting the car, he makes sure they have everything they need and everyone understands the game plan.
"All right, we can't take any chances, anything silver goes in the fire."
"Agreed," Sam and Elena say together.
Movement from the church causes the brothers to turn suddenly. It's Lori, opening the back door.
Dean turns to look at Elena.
She shrugs.
"Yeah, I didn't want to break into a church," she confesses.
Dean laughs somewhat incredulously.
"So you just asked her to let us in?" Sam asks in disbelief.
Elena nods.
"Essentially," she admits. "I told her it was an emergency."
Sam and Dean share a disbelieving look.
Dean looks at Elena.
"You are, without a doubt, my favorite person," he tells her seriously.
She shrugs again.
"We never answered the mirror breaking paradox, so I figured we couldn't use any more bad karma, like the kind you get from breaking into a church."
Sam laughs, remembering Elena asking Dean about if it was bad luck to break Bloody Mary's Mirror.
"Now c'mon boys, we have to go explain to Lori why we wanna melt all the silver in her father's church."
Lori surprises them by not only believing them about the Hook Man, but by promptly bursting into tears.
Elena gently pries her keys from her hand and gives them to Sam, making the decision of who's going to do the house and who's on church duty.
Elena guides a still sobbing Lori into a pew while Dean tries not to feel guilty as he pulls all the silver off the altar space and into a bag to take down to the furnace.
Dean already has the furnace going and salted by the time Sam makes it back.
"I got everything that even looked silver," Sam says as he takes the stairs two at a time.
"Better safe than sorry," Dean says grimly.
Upstairs, Lori's sobbing has finally slowed down enough that she can finally speak.
"This whole time, I was trying to understand what's been happening, and why," her voice is very quiet. "Now I know."
Lori slides out of Elena's embrace, nearly boneless, she goes to her knees.
"What are you doing, Lori?" Elena asks.
"Praying for forgiveness."
Elena flinches, biting her lip.
"You don't have to do that," she says hoarsely.
"Yes I do, I'm to blame for all of this, you said it yourself, you all did."
Elena shakes her head, frantically. She's surprised to feel the tears pricking at her eyes. She feels seventeen all over again. Seventeen, Katherine's gaunt face staring at her from the tomb, forcing their fate down her throat like poison.
"No, that's not what we said, Lori," Elena insists. "He did it, he did all of it, your feelings are not your fault, you can't help it. You are not to blame for any of this, Lori."
Lori's shoulders shake, her hands grasped together in front of her, red and white from how hard she's holding herself, and Elena can see they're shaking too.
"I was so angry at my father, part of me wanted him punished, and then he came and he punished him."
Elena slides down to her knees beside Lori. She puts her arms back around the younger girl.
"It's not your fault. He could've latched onto anyone who was in the right place, he has before."
Lori just shakes and sobs, unable to believe what Elena is saying.
"I killed Rich, Taylor, too. I nearly killed my father."
Elena shakes her head.
"Wanting people to be punished is not the same thing as wanting them dead, you never wanted that," she says firmly.
Neither of them notice the Hook Man materializing behind them.
"They didn't deserve to be punished," Lori says. "I do."
"No," Elena says firmly, but it's too late.
The air stirs behind them, loud enough for them to hear. Both Lori and Elena turn at the sound. The candles go out. Elena grabs at the gun tucked into her waist, it's gone and across the room before she can even get a proper hold on it.
Elena swears, frantically turns back to Lori, grabbing her by the face.
"You are not responsible, he's a malevolent spirit who feeds of negative emotions, don't let him win. More importantly, don't let him hurt you, Lori. Don't give into the belief that you deserve to be punished for your feelings or your existence or whatever it is about yourself that you hate."
Elena doesn't wait for Lori's reply or to wait if her little speech has worked, she just stands up, grabbing Lori's hand and dragging her to her feet and towards the cellar door.
The Hook Man materializes between them and their exit, so Elena drags Lori away.
"Lori, I need you to scream with me, very, very loudly, so loudly the boys can hear us downstairs, okay?"
Lori nods frantically.
"Now, okay?"
Another nod, and then they're both screaming their heads off as they run for another exit.
Jacob Karns appears right behind them as they slide through a door. He smashes the glass window with his hook, spraying them with glass.
Elena shoves Lori ahead of her just as Karns' swings his hook down exactly where Lori had been. He makes contact with Elena's arm instead, wrenching a hiss of pain from between her teeth. Ignoring the pain, Elena grabs Lori again and keeps moving.
Elena tugs Lori on through another room and another, as quickly as she can.
An invisible force wrenches Lori to the ground. Elena doesn't let go, instead grabbing onto her more firmly, going along with the ride as Karns' drags them across the floor and into another room.
He appears right above them, Elena stands up so that she is firmly between Karns and Lori.
"Elena, drop," Dean's voice commands from the hallway.
Without a thought, Elena drops down, covering Lori with her body for good measure.
Dean takes the shot the second she's down, but Karns disappears before the salt round can make contact.
"I thought we got all the silver," Sam says, coming up behind Dean.
"So did I," Dean replies, shaking his head.
"Then why is he still here?"
Elena is pulling Lori to her feet when she catches sight of the silver cross around her neck.
"Well maybe we missed something," Dean says, unaware of what has caught Elena's attention.
"Lori, did your father give you that necklace?" she asks calmly.
Lori looks down at it.
"Uh, yeah? He did?"
By now, Dean and Sam are also staring at her necklace.
"Did it happen to come from this church?" Elena asks, still calm.
Lori nods.
"He said it was a church heirloom," she says, still confused.
Elena nods in return.
"I'm sorry, we have to melt it," Elena tells her.
Lori finally understands, taking it off and handing it to Elena who gives it to Dean.
"Sam, you stay here with them, I'll be right back."
"I just wanted to thank you for what you said last night," Lori tells Elena.
The two girls are sitting on the steps to her house the next afternoon.
Elena cocks her head to the side.
"Of course, that's what friends are for," Elena says, brushing it off like Dean and Sam aren't sitting in the Impala, waiting to leave.
Lori shakes her head.
"Most friends don't have to talk you down from a ghost-related breakdown."
Elena laughs.
"Well they're not very interesting friends then, are they?"
Lori giggles but nods in agreement.
"So I got you something," Elena says, taking a small box out of her purse. She hands it over to Lori. "I made Dean take me to the mall this morning."
Lori gives her a curious look, then opens the box. Inside is a new silver cross, much smaller and more finely made than the one they'd melted the night before.
"Elena, you didn't have to," she says, touching it gently.
"I wanted to," Elena says simply. "I just thought, it was another way you could make sure he didn't win."
Lori cocks her head to the side, curious, so Elena elaborates.
"Don't give up on what matters to you," Elena says simply, allowing Lori decide if she means her father or her Father.
Lori nods.
"Will you help me put it on?"
Elena takes the box from her, carefully taking out the necklace.
When the necklace is on, Lori gently settles the cross into place. It suits her much better than the last one.
"Thank you so much," Lori says.
"You're welcome," Elena replies.
Tentatively, Lori reaches out and touches the chain around Elena's neck. "The entire time we were at the hospital I kept wondering what was on this chain. I feel like I should ask before it's too late to know."
Elena smiles somewhat sadly. She slides her fingers under the chain, pulling it up and out from under her shirt. There are three rings hanging from the delicate gold chain, two wedding rings and a diamond engagement ring.
"They belonged to my parents." She hesitates. "I didn't use to wear them, but before I left home, I just. I felt like I needed them with me, more tangibly, you know?"
Lori nods, unable to speak. Elena tucks the rings back under her shirt.
"I'm really going to miss you, you know?"
Elena nods, surprised that she really would miss the younger girl.
"I know it's not the same, but we can still keep in touch," Elena offers. She knows full well that it isn't what John would want her to do, but she can't help the impulse.
"Just don't ask me for notes from Dr. Lawrence's class, because I definitely won't have any."
Lori laughs.
Once Elena climbs into the Impala, Dean glances back at her.
"We can stay, if you want," Dean offers, looks over at Sam. "Find out if Sammy and Lori are gonna have pretty, pretty babies."
Sam rolls his eyes and Elena laughs.
She shakes her head.
"Nah, we have to keep moving, remember?"
Sam and Dean exchange a look.
"Right."
The next morning, before getting ready to leave, Elena is showing Sam a video of her brother trying to paint with his non-dominant hand, the two of them in stitches, when Dean slingshots something at Elena.
"These ended up in my bag, keep track of your shit, Gilbert."
He's out the door before either of them can say a thing.
Elena holds up her shorts for Sam to see.
"Unbelievable," she pronounces his brother.
Sam laughs.
"No, the two of you are unbelievable," Sam corrects her.
Elena narrows her eyes at him.
"Go away," she says flatly. "I need to finish packing now, I'll be right out."
Sam gets up, shaking his head and laughing at how ridiculous they are. He makes it across the parking lot nearly to the Impala where Dean is waiting when he remembers that he left his phone charger.
Swearing under his breath he turns back around. He'd left his key for Elena to return, and the doors are self-locking. Hopefully she's still in the room to let him in. He's all the way back to the room and about to knock on the door when he hears Elena's voice through the open window.
Curious, he presses his palm flat against the door instead of knocking.
"I really need you to pick up your damn phone, John," Elena is saying.
Sam's eyes widen. She's leaving a message for his dad. He thought he was the only one still trying to get a reply.
"I don't understand what happened in St. Louis, and you're the only person I can trust with this, so call me, or call Dean or Sam. Send me a fucking carrier pigeon. Just." Pause. "I don't have anyone else I can trust with this, you know that. Call me, please. I need you."
Sam goes back to the Impala without his phone charger. On his walk back, he considers what it means that Elena doesn't trust Dean with something, anything. She trusts John more than she trusts Dean, and suddenly Sam is back to feeling like he doesn't know her at all.
When Elena gets into the car ten minutes later, there is no indication that she's at all worried about St. Louis or getting ahold of their father. Sam can feel the beginning of a slow-spreading horror at the ease with which Elena lies to them, especially Dean.
It's not exactly a betrayal that she doesn't tell them she's still trying to reach John, but it makes Sam uneasy how effortlessly she hides any part of herself away. It only reinforces the feeling that she is a stranger.
"You left your phone charger, Sam."
tbc.
AN: The chapter title is taken by Sinnerman by Nina Simon. A lot of people have recorded versions of this song, but I picked Nina Simone's version because it's ten minutes long and that just feels right for both Elena Gilbert as a person and Supernatural as a show.
A few things: Yes, I was referring to the Harvelles and their Roadhouse, no, this story is not going to go (that far) into season two. (It would be unfair for me to not do my own version of 2x01 but after that it's done.) I just have this idea of Jo and Elena being friends and I couldn't resist a reference to it. Also John is just always perpetually annoyed with Elena and always looking for someone to foist her off onto so I imagine Ellen has been that person at least once or twice.
What else, um, oh yes, Elena's badass scar and that time Dean took off her pants. (Just imagine Dean's face once she's not in danger of dying and he realizes exactly what he just did, you're welcome.) As far as I can remember, manticores aren't ever mentioned in Supernatural canon, so I can do whatever I want with them, but if I'm wrong, just ignore it for my sanity's sake, okay?
Oh, wow, okay, I had a lot of half-references this chapter, I'm sorry. When Elena says she's smelled ozone that strongly before she's thinking of the time Emily Bennett's spirit possessed Bonnie at a slumber party way back in season one of The Vampire Diaries. Another little "I couldn't resist" moment.
Finally, a bit of a question. I actually finally have all of the chapter titles for this story, and therefore all of the songs. I'm definitely going to make them into a playlist and post them sometime, but now seems too soon. I'm thinking at the halfway point? Or maybe closer to the end? If you have any opinions, feel free to let me now.
Anyway, I'm done, lol. I hope you liked this chapter, go read my new Deanlena oneshot if you're in need of more of them! Please let me know what you thought of this chapter! Questions? Comments? Please leave a review!
xoxo
-Pixie