Pandora's Box
Title: Pandora's Box
Category: Supernatural
Characters: Amelia Richardson
Genre: Angst/Drama
Warning: spoilers for 8.10 “Torn and Frayed”
Summary: Tag to 8.10 so SPOILERS for that episode. What does Amelia actually know about the man she has wanted to share the rest of her life with? Google is just one click away.
Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing with other people's toys
Author's Note: It's not clearly stated on the show if Amelia knows that Dean is alive or not. I'm going with not because I believe it would have been mentioned how odd it would be that Don and Dean both have come back from the dead so to speak.
Pandora's Box
Amelia came home to the house she had picked out with Sam. Where she lived with Don now, who wasn't there that often. The house was dark and empty and not even Riot could help her shake off the feeling of being alone. With a huff she dropped on the couch and had Riots head on her knee a second later.
"You miss him, too. Don't you?" She rubbed the spot behind Riot's ear and he made a sound which she decided to interpret as agreement.
She had fully expected Sam to be there. That they would meet at the motel, maybe had some great sex and then start their life together. In her mind she had already a little speech prepared for Don who would have been the loser in this game but better to make up your mind and do what you want than to live a lie, right?
But Sam hadn't been there and now Amelia would go back to her life with Don. Make it work again. Somehow. And Sam would go back to his life with … nobody. As far as she knew his brother had been his only family and Dean was dead.
"Is there another woman? What do you think, hmm?" She asked Riot who decided to keep silent. Thinking about that idea she smiled. No there was no other woman, she was certain of that. Sam wasn't that kind of a man. They had lived together, had shared bed and table for half a year, she knew Sam.
But still, he hadn't been there like she'd expected. Which meant what?
Mechanically her fingers worked that spot behind Riot's ear and the dog was nearly asleep in her lap while she thought about Sam and what she knew about him. Her fingers came to a sudden halt. What did she actually know about the man she had wanted to share the rest of her life with?
He had lost his brother, his only family. That was the one thing that had connected them first. That and Riot. They had both been messed up but together they had gotten back on their feet.
After his brother's death Sam had become some kind of drifter. Drove aimlessly around in his brother's car and took the job at the motel when money became tight. What he had done before that she didn't know. He had been to Stanford at some point but didn't finish his education. Why she had no clue.
And that was it. She knew how he liked his coffee and which noises he made in his sleep but where he had came from before he had hit Riot and brought him into her clinic she didn't know.
While they had been together they had come to the silent agreement not to speak about the past. With them both still suffering from their recent losses it had made sense. She had told him about Don and he had said a few things about Dean and that was that. She didn't even know how Dean died.
"Weird. You think you know somebody." She shook her head. An idea formed in her mind.
"Are you curious?" She took Riot's head in both hands so that the dog had to look at her.
"I am curious." She decided and stood up to get her laptop. Once or twice she had googled her own name and the names of some friends just to see what would turn up. She had never looked up Sam Winchester.
Seconds later she had the site open and the name typed in. All she had to do was to hit enter.
"Should I?" She asked the dog. Riot tilted his head and his ears perked up.
"Doubt we'll find more than some drunk college pictures, so don't get your hopes up too much." She told the dog and hit the key.
There were more results than she had expected. A lot more.
"Okay." She skimmed the first results. "Winchester seems to be more common than I thought."
It took her only a few clicks to realize that "Sam Winchester" wasn't a common name at all.
"Oh my God." Amelia looked at a mugshot which showed a clearly younger but without a doubt her Sam. He looked uncomfortable like a college student caught with a joint and who now feared what his parents would say. But this wasn't about smoking pot or driving too fast. This was serious, serial killer serious.
Amelia remembered joking that with the way Sam dressed he had to be either a white supremacist or a drifting serial killer. Apparently the latter wasn't that far off. Dead-on to be correct.
"Oh my God." She repeated and her trembling fingers didn't quite hit the correct keys. Breathing hard she hold the edges of the laptop in a white knuckle grip, icy shivers running down her spine. Greyish mist tunneled her vision and for a second she was sure she'd pass out. Sensing her distress Riot made a whining noise and nudged her side with his nose.
Her first impulse after this short glimpse of Sam's real face was to shut the laptop and never even think of him again. But she couldn't do it. She had lived with Sam for roundabout half a year and all she had ever seen of him was a caring man, a loving man, a gentle man. He had been shattered by his brother's death just like she had been shattered by Don's. And he never ever showed any violent tendencies. Never.
He had hit a dog by accident and cared enough to get him help instead of letting him die at the side of the road for Christ's sake. That was the Sam she knew not that monster which was pictured on the internet.
"It's some kind of mistake." She told Riot and adjusted the laptop once again on her lap. "It has to be."
An hour later she wasn't so sure anymore. Apparently Sam and Dean Winchester had faked their death a few times to escape the police not caring that they killed innocent people on the way. Blew up a whole sheriff's department. Made it up to number two on the FBI's Most Wanted List before they finally kicked it. Or so everybody thought. Except that Amelia was pretty sure she had seen a walking and talking Sam Winchester just the other day. And it didn't add up with Dean's assumed death either. At least as far as she could trust Sam's word about that. But his grief had felt real and recent.
"Maybe his brother's death has changed him somehow." She thought loud. Maybe he had amnesia and had forgotten that he used to be a bloodthirsty monster. Sure.
Serial killers had fans, Amelia found out. There where whole sites on the internet about the famous Winchester brothers.
One site had a video linked to it. Labeled "The real Natural Born Killers" complete with "Take note: this video is not for the faint of heart."
Amelia sat there for a whole minute not sure if she wanted to watch it or not. In the end she clicked Play.
The video had been made with a phone camera and it was shaky at best. Amelia recognized some kind of diner. People cowered on the floor but her eyes where on two man. By now she had seen enough pictures of Dean Winchester to immediately recognize the man standing on the table holding a gun. Sam was closer to the camera, making sure whatever was coming next would get caught by it.
In the background Dean fired his gun and for a second the video only showed the floor. Then it faced an angry Sam approaching the one holding the camera.
"Hey! Hey, hey, hey, hey! Keep that up! I didn't say you could put that down! I want the whole world to know what Sam and Dean Winchester are capable of." With that Sam pointed his gun at a customer and when the shot came Amelia screamed along with the people dying in the diner.
"That all of 'em?" Dean asked after the gunfire stopped and looked around.
"All but one." Sam's cold voice was directed to the camera.
"Please, no." The voice sounded young, a teenager maybe.
"No, no, no." Amelia muttered while she watched in horror how Sam lifted his gun and shot the one holding the camera.
"Well, goodnight, St. Louis. You've been a wonderful crowd. Grab your socks and hose, Iowa, 'cause we're headed to you next." Dean said and his head took half of the screen so close was he to the camera. The other half was filled with Sam's familiar features. Which didn't look familiar at all anymore. The brothers winked and then the video ended.
Amelia stared at the black screen. That wasn't her Sam. How could this be her Sam?
Tears ran down her face and her whole body was trembling now. Riot crawled closer till he practically sat in her lap and licked her hand. Mechanically she put the laptop aside and buried her face in the dog's fur. Holding on to the dog she let it all out.
Later the tears stopped and her mind somewhat had excepted the fact that she had lived together with a psychopathic serial killer. Remembering the time with Sam she still didn't find any hint of his secret nature, however, that video had shown her what he really was.
She was lucky to be alive. Maybe Sam really felt something for her. And wasn't that creepy.
"What now?" She asked and Riot answered with a soft whine. "I've to tell somebody."
Of course she had to call the police, there was a dangerous man on the loose. But she didn't get up to get the phone.
She didn't know where Sam was. She had his number, sure, and with that the police could track him down. Maybe.
"What if he gets away?" He had escaped the police more times than she bothered to count. Even had faked his death a couple of times. What if he escaped once again? What if he figured out that Amelia had called the police on him?
Her grip in Riot's fur tightened and the dog made a surprised noise but didn't pull away.
Would the police even believe her? Sam Winchester was supposed to be dead after all. Sam had never been keen on pictures, now she knew why, so she only had one on her phone but it was a bit blurry. Would that be enough to identify him?
Amelia sat in the increasing darkness on the couch with Riot at her side for hours. Then she made a decision.
She got the laptop and deleted the browser history. Then she stood up and packed a bag. No way would she stay the night here all alone. Sam had stalked her the other day, had stood right outside of her window watching her. Just because he hadn't been in the motel room didn't mean he wasn't around somewhere.
She found another motel and got a room for the night. Before she went to bed she double-checked the door and every window. Then she settled in with Riot laying at the end of the bed. He couldn't save her if an angry Sam would burst in but his presence comforted her.
First thing in the morning she would get a new phone. And she would start looking for a new place to live somewhere in a different state.
Laying in bed she thought mostly about Sam but Don was another issue. She doubted it would work out. She had been prepared to leave Don for Sam and that couldn't be the foundation for a happy marriage. Besides there was no way she could explain the upcoming changes to him. Not without telling him about Sam.
After the divorce she would use her maiden name again. And her middle name instead of Amelia.
She doubted that that would be enough to effectively hide from Sam if he decided to really look for her but it was the best she could think of.
"Thank God he hasn't been there." She whispered only now realizing how close she had been to spent the rest of her life with a psychopath.
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