An Unexpected Visit

[bloodnbadthings]

They'd been at it over a month now with still no sign of Dad. There had been hope once when an old acquaintance of John and Dean's called for help on another case and informed them that he found Sam's phone number by calling John's. Suddenly the phone that had given them nothing but disconnect redirects was now clicking over to voicemail in their father's voice informing people to call Sam if they needed help.

Sam had... not liked that development. Dean could understand why. Sam didn't have anything against helping people, but to have proof that their father was still out there and knew Sam was hunting... presumably knew Sam was looking for him... but, he was still staying out of communication? Dean could understand why that was upsetting. All he could do was keep trying to track the man down and hope when they did, Sam could get his answers.

They were in the middle of nowhere Illinois, Dean still recovering from his first and last airplane flight, when their hunt met with an unexpected snag. Dean walked into their motel room after sitting with Sam through his dinner to find their room occupied. A blond vampire was stretched out on Dean's bed, lounging. Inwardly, Dean started cussing colorfully while he pushed Sam as casually behind him as he could.

"Hello, Eric."

Comments

[bloodnbadthings]

Dean nodded and went back out the window to take the bag from Sam. Once he had it in hand, he dropped soundlessly down to the ground and waited for his brother to join him. He was silent until they reached the car and he tossed the bag into the back seat.

"We need to get in to see the first vic's bathroom."

[thinkshesosmart]

"Yeah... it's going to be trickier getting inside though." They wouldn't have someone there to unlock the door this time...

"Think we can pull it off tonight?"

[bloodnbadthings]

"Think we'd better give it a shot. There's no telling who Mary'll hit next and I don't want to give her another night to do it." He started up the engine and pulled out onto the street, heading back to the first victim's house. "Think you're up for getting the door open? If you can do the initial break in and let me in, I can get up to the bathroom without any sound. In and out, shouldn't take too long."

[thinkshesosmart]

"You know I am." Not like Dad hadn't shown them how to pick locks or get in places discreetly. Dean was made even better for it now, he supposed. "Sounds like a plan."

[bloodnbadthings]

"Good. Let's figure this out so we can kill this bitch." Hunting something he couldn't even reliably name was working on his nerves badly. The sooner they found out what was going on, the happier he'd be.

In little suburbia, it didn't take long to get from Jill's house to the Shoemaker's. He parked the requisite distance away and nodded to Sam before climbing out of the car. Fast. Quiet. Hopefully without incident. That was the plan.

[thinkshesosmart]

Lock picks in hand, Sam was out of the car and going around the back to get the lock. Dean'd be quicker to go in by himself, he figured. It'd definitely help on some cases, as quick as he could be.

And thankfully, there weren't any pesky alarms to set off from what he could tell, so they'd get in without a hitch. Getting it picked open, he stepped inside cautiously. Lights were off so everyone was hopefully fast asleep. "Dean, get in, come on." He looked over. "Try not to make too much noise."

[bloodnbadthings]

Dean was in and past him without a sound before he finished speaking. The shorter the time spent in this house, the better for everyone. He didn't like taking more risks with Sam's safety so soon after the incident with the other vampire.

He carried the gear he needed up to the bathroom and took the mirror down silently. On the back, just as in Jill's house, were 'bloody' hand prints and a name. Linda Shoemaker. Interesting.

He put the mirror back into place and ghosted down the stairs once again to rejoin Sam. "Got it. Let's get out of here," he whispered as he stepped outside.

[thinkshesosmart]

Sam was never going to get used to that new ability of Dean's. He lingered by the door, arms crossed as he kept an eye out for anybody.

Dean was back fast and Sam nodded, waiting for Dean to step out so he could get the door shut and locked back. After that, he led the way back to the Impala and settled in. "What's the name?"

[bloodnbadthings]

"Linda Shoemaker. Starting to think Daddy Shoemaker might have been a bad boy." He started the car and headed back toward their motel room. Suddenly, he felt better about the case. They had leads to follow, finally.

[thinkshesosmart]

"You think so?" It sounded possible, yeah. Damn, he'd have to look up what he could about it, figure out what he could. "At least we didn't come up empty handed this time, huh?"

[bloodnbadthings]

"I dunno, man, but it would explain why the kid who actually said the words didn't get ganked. Maybe she just called Mary to the house and Mary decided on the juicy victim?" At this point, he was willing to entertain any theory. It was more than they had before.

"No kidding. This case. It's driving me nuts."

[thinkshesosmart]

"Yeah, maybe... We were looking into suicides for people named Mary, maybe murders would give us more to go off of." Any theory would be good at this point... at least they had a break in the case finally.

"You look up what you can tonight on the computer, alright? I'll get up early tomorrow and see what I can find around town."

[bloodnbadthings]

"Sure, no problem." Dean didn't mind doing the computer work when he was pretty much useless for day work. Maybe he'd pick up a second laptop somewhere along the line and pitch in a little more with the computer work. Which reminded him that they still needed to recoup some of the cash Sam had to drop at the morgue. Well, he'd get to that as soon as they ganked Mary.

"You need anything before we hit the motel?"

[thinkshesosmart]

"Not really, no." His mind was back on the case now. He'd rather just get back to work than make any stops. Dean'd be doing the work tonight--figured he could handle it, would want to after that talk they'd had while Dean had been buzzed on blood.

He was quiet until they reached the motel, just thinking about the case, trying to think of anything that they might have overlooked. But he tried to shrug it off when they were heading into the room. Getting some sleep tonight'd be important and hopefully, he could manage at least a couple hours uninterrupted by anything.

[bloodnbadthings]

"Get some sleep, Sammy. I got this." He told his brother as they entered the room. Dean took a seat at the table and opened the laptop, getting to work on tracking down the names, as well as anything about murdered Mary's in the area.

[thinkshesosmart]

"Yeah, alright... tell me if you find anything, Dean." He went to tug off some of his clothes, tossing them over on his bag before he went to slip under the covers, muffling a yawn against his hand.

[bloodnbadthings]

"Will do." Dean nodded and watched Sam settle down. He worked at the computer steadily, getting up once to heat up another TruBlood. He wasn't particularly hungry, well not more so than he always was, but it gave him something to do. Felt normal-ish.

God, this was frustrating. So much information available and none of it useful.

[thinkshesosmart]

Sam rested about as well as he ever did-- there were nightmares, mostly, mixed in with other vivid dreams here and there, but it was becoming run of the mill now, normal to wake up to.

Didn't mean he slept very late. But that was okay because they had work to do and he wouldn't get to it staying in bed.

[bloodnbadthings]

Dean sighed as he watched Sam struggle in his sleep. When he couldn't listen anymore, he finally called over to wake him. "Sam! Sam, wake up."

[thinkshesosmart]

Sam startled awake, blinking in confusion before he looked over at Dean. "Huh?"

It took a minute to gather himself, push himself into a sitting position. "What's going on?"

[bloodnbadthings]

"You were having another bad dream." No point in asking what about, really. It had to be Jessica. If anyone had reason to have nightmares, it was Sam. Dean just wished he could do something to stop it from eating Sam alive.

"Don't suppose you wanna tell me about it?"

[thinkshesosmart]

"It's the same thing as always..." He moved to slip out of bed, going to the mini fridge they had in the room for a bottle of water or something. No use in trying to settle back asleep now.

And no way was he giving details... What would he say? He saw flames and Jess on the ceiling, asking him why. He didn't know why he hadn't protected her, hadn't told her the truth other than his own selfish drive to be normal.

He shook his head, bringing the bottle to his lips. "Find anything?"

[bloodnbadthings]

He sighed at the evasion and let it slide. No sense in picking a fight with Sam right now. After this case was over, they really needed to talk or something, though. Much as he hated talking.

"Yep." He turned back to the notes he'd been taking. "Looked up the names Gary Bryman and Linda Shoemaker. Found them in the obituaries. Linda was our original vic's wife. According to the coroner, she OD'd on a bunch of sleeping pills. They ruled it an accident."

"Gary was an eight year old who was killed in a hit and run. Witnesses saw a black, Toyota Camry driving away from the scene, but nobody saw the driver or got the plates. Now... three guesses what kind of car Jill drove?"

[thinkshesosmart]

"So that's it, huh?" He moved over to look at the notes over Dean's shoulder. "She's punishing people who are guilty of something is what you're thinking?"

It's what it sounded like anyway. Still didn't explain where she was coming from or how, but it was a start at least. "We should talk to Charlie again tomorrow, see if she knows anything else, I guess."

[bloodnbadthings]

"I dunno for sure, but it sounds like a pretty good theory to me. If we assume that Mr. Shoemaker did something to help his wife along to the other side, then it fits. And that's not all..." He picked up some printouts and handed them to his brother. One was a police report, the other a photograph of a mirror with a bloody hand print and writing on it. "I ran a nationwide search in sheer fucking desperation. I came up with one hit. A woman named Mary Worthington was murdered right in front of that mirror in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. It ain't exactly local, but it fits and it's all I can find."