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

[thinkshesosmart]

He snorted, letting his own eyes drift shut even though he was far from wanting to sleep. Sleep generally meant unpleasantness, so he'd actually prefer just being awake. "Weirdo."

Dean was comfortable against him anyway, warm from the blood and solid. Irritating as his brother could be, he was just glad to have him back.

[bloodnbadthings]

Even though he didn't plan to, Dean did doze a bit as he laid there. Soon enough, though, the dawn was closing in and his instinctive need to hide from it got him moving. He shifted away reluctantly, rolling onto his back to yawn and stretch.

"Time for me to disappear, Sammy." He sat up slowly. "See you tonight..."

[thinkshesosmart]

"Hm?" He opened his eyes slowly. He'd been half-dozing, himself. The words registered and he gave a nod of his own. "Alright... 'night, Dean."

He settled back to wait for Dean to get situated under the bed and go under before he'd get up and shower... and get ready to meet with that officer. Hopefully, something could get resolved today.

[bloodnbadthings]

"Good luck. Be careful out there." Dean reached over to ruffle Sam's hair lightly and then slipped under the bed to settle in for the day. Minutes after he was situated, the sun rose and he fell into nothingness.

[thinkshesosmart]

"Dude..." He made a face at that ruffle, even if he was too drowsy to really get too worked up about it. After Dean was out for the day, Sam got up to shower. He had time to kill before he could go do anything, so he spent it doing a little more research, making sure he had his facts straight before he headed out to meet with the detective.

Turned out Mary was a 19 year old girl, having an affair with someone who likely killed her but got away scot-free. She was cremated, but the mirror was returned to the family...

And apparently, the mirror was sold recently to a shop in Toledo.

That seemed more than enough to go on. He just had to wait for Dean to get up to tell him.

[bloodnbadthings]

The first thing Dean thought when he woke was that he hoped Sam came up with something amazing, because he was sick to death of the underside of this fucking bed. He made a face at it and then climbed out, standing to stretch and dust himself off.

"Tell me you hit the jackpot."

[thinkshesosmart]

"Think I found something. Turns out Mary was murdered... the detective said something about how she'd been having an affair with some guy and she wrote in her journal she was going to tell his wife." He shrugged, watching as Dean stretched himself out.

"Long story short, she was cremated and the family kept the mirror, but... it was recently sold to a shop here. Figure it's the best thing we've got to go off of, right? But the only thing I don't get is... how can she move through different mirrors?"

[bloodnbadthings]

"I have no idea, but I say we find the bitch and smash it, because I'm officially sick of this town and this case." He felt better now that they had a plan of some sort. Anything to get moving and stop sitting around on his ass.

He grabbed his bag to pull on some clean clothes. He could shower tonight after it was over. "Ready for some breaking and entering, little bro?"

[thinkshesosmart]

Dean was eager... and so was Sam, but something told him it wouldn't be as easy as smashing the mirror. He could wait to talk about it though... wait until they were closer. He got to his feet and pocketed the photo of the mirror they were looking for and slipped his jacket on.

"You know it, Dean. Let's just get this over with."

[bloodnbadthings]

As soon as he was dressed, he snatched the keys off the top of the TV and clapped Sam on the shoulder. Oh yeah, he was in a good mood now. With any luck, they'd be out of this town by dawn. Sure, he'd be under another nasty motel bed somewhere, but it would be a different nasty motel room bed.

He climbed into the Impala and started the engine, heading for the shop Sam indicated.

[thinkshesosmart]

He settled in the Impala an let the silence drag out for a bit. His eyes were focused out the window and part of him didn't want to bring this up seeing as how Dean seemed to be in a good mood right now and he didn't want to be bothered with the argument, but the more he let it drag out, the less time he'd have to convince Dean of it.

"Dean, I was thinking... Maybe it's not enough to smash just that mirror. Mary's hard to pin down, she can move from mirror to mirror obviously. So... maybe we need to summon her, tie her down,and then smash it."

[bloodnbadthings]

Something about Sam's silence niggled at the edge of Dean's awareness, but he decided not to pry. They could talk after this case was in their rear view.

He glanced over at Sam's words and hummed thoughtfully. It made sense, but there was a problem. "I dunno how we'd do that. If we're right, she only comes after someone with a big, nasty secret of some kind. Plus, I'm already dead, so I doubt she'd waste her energy on me."

[thinkshesosmart]

Well, it was now or never, really. "I can do it, Dean. She'll come after me."

He had a big, nasty secret, alright. She'd want him for what happened with Jess, for not warning her... for not doing anything for her.

[bloodnbadthings]

"What?" Dean snapped his head around to look at Sam. Dean knew killers. Hell, he was one. There was no way Sam was carrying around the kind of secret that would draw in Mary. "What are you talking about, Sam? If this is about Jessica... dude, you didn't kill her. Something else did."

[thinkshesosmart]

He shook his head at that, turning his back to the road for something to focus on. "I haven't told you everything about Jessica, Dean." The dreams that played out exactly how it happened days before... they weren't just nightmares, but he was just too damn obsessed with being normal to even consider it...

"Just trust me on this, man. It's the only shot we have... and if you don't let me do that, Dean, people are going to keep dying because of Mary. You know that."

[bloodnbadthings]

He grit his teeth and stared out the windshield in silence for a few minutes. Sam was right that they needed some way to pin the bitch down, but use Sam for bait? No fucking way. Hadn't he already almost gotten his brother killed once on this case?

"It's too dangerous Sam. There's gotta be a better way."

[thinkshesosmart]

"Dean, you're going to let me do this. You've got to." There wasn't room for argument in his tone. They weren't going to use anyone else, not for this.

"You know we have to."

[bloodnbadthings]

"Fine," he ground out finally. "If it gets too close for comfort, though, I'm getting your ass out of there. Whether you want me to or not." Even if he had to burn down the whole fucking town to get Sam out safe.

Maybe it wouldn't work anyway? Maybe Sam just thought he was as bad as all that. Dean could only hope.

[thinkshesosmart]

"Fine." It wasn't like he wanted to die or anything, but it was the best bet they had to save other people from dying... they had to take it. He settled back to watching the road, frown tugging at his lips.

"It's just up here."

[bloodnbadthings]

When they arrived, Dean parked around the side of the building and slowly got out of the car. Looked like any other little antique shop in any other little nowhere town. Who would guess it had something evil inside?

He grabbed their bag and carried it to the door, letting Sam do the honors with the lock.

[thinkshesosmart]

Sam went to get the door open... didn't take too long. They were pretty much experts at this sort of thing by now. Taking a step inside and muttering for Dean to follow, he paused.

There were a lot of mirrors in this place. "Great..."

He took a step forward, picture out of the mirror. It took some searching, but he did come across it eventually. "Think that's it..."

[bloodnbadthings]

Dean paused in the door a moment to listen for heartbeats. Not going to make that same mistake a second time and risk Sam getting hurt again. The only living thing in the building was Sam, though. And maybe a couple mice in the walls.

He followed Sam in, checking mirrors against the picture his brother found. When Sam found it, he hurried over, fingers itching to just smash the thing. He knew Sam was right about trapping her, though. They had to be sure.

"You sure you wanna do this?"

[thinkshesosmart]

He let out a sigh to steel himself, nodding before turning to the mirror. He took the crowbar he'd grabbed in hand an held it ready. "Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary."

He gave Dean a brief look. Couldn't deny he wasn't a little nervous. One near death experience a little bit ago was enough to do it to you, but it was important, so... "Bloody Mary."

He nodded to Dean to move back. He could do this one on his own, hopefully.

[bloodnbadthings]

Dean was so distracted by his focus on the mirror that it took him a few second to notice the voices outside. One metallic sounding, and two living. Crap.... cops. He glanced at his brother anxiously.

"There're cops outside. I'm gonna go get rid of them real quick. If you see anything move, start swinging." Fuck, he hated to leave Sam alone here, but the last thing they needed was more civilians involved. He gave the mirror a last, worried glance and then headed for the front door.

[thinkshesosmart]

He nodded, hand tightening on the crowbar. There wasn't anything... but eventually, he did catch something out of the corner of his eye and took a swing at the mirror, smashing it... and then another.

"Come on," he muttered. "Come to this one."

It needed to be her mirror.

He almost didn't notice how his own reflection was moving, not at first. Brows furrowed, all he can do is stare as it starts to speak, "It's your fault. You killed her. You killed Jessica. "

Oh, God, all of a sudden it's like he can't breathe. He can feel something wet drip down his face and if the pain is any indication, it's nothing good. He drops the crowbar, grabbing at his heart.

Fuck.

"You never told her the truth, who you really were. But it's more than that, isn't it? Those nightmares you've been having of Jessica dying, screaming, burning..."

Sam fell to the ground as the pain grew. This was bad. Really bad and Dean wasn't here to help him. "You had them for days before she died. Didn't you?"

He winced at that question, at the accusations. "You were so desperate to ignore them, to believe they were just dreams. How could you ignore them like that? How could you leave her alone to die? You dreamt it would happen!"