Fic: Seventy-Seven Square Miles (1/2)
Master Post | Part Two
Alex
“No, no, no, that’s a one-way!”
Alex ground her teeth together as she flicked off the car’s blinker and sped back up to match the rest of the traffic. “Then where do I turn?”
“The next one.”
“That’s not a one-way?”
“No, it is.”
“What?”
“It’s a one-way the other way.”
In through her nose, out through her mouth. Just breathe. She double checked the bike lane before moving into the turning lane, stopping completely at the corner to wait for a couple pedestrians. There were way more people out and walking around than Alex was used to while driving and it was putting her on edge. If she saw one more orange construction barrel she was going to scream.
“Here, this parking garage,” Patience said, pointing across Alex’s chest. “I think that’s where they said we can park.”
“At this point I don’t even care,” Alex said. “If we’re wrong we can just walk.”
It was only once the car was safely stowed in a parking space that she was finally able to take a breath.
“You did great?” Patience offered.
Alex tried to smile back, but it was probably more of a grimace. “This city is stupid. Its roads are stupid. Remind me why we’re here?”
“You’re here because Jody couldn’t get away from work,” Patience replied as she got out of the car.
Alex did the same and cringed as the wall of summer heat hit her. She immediately missed the air-conditioned car interior. “So then remind me why you’re going here?”
“It’s a good school,” Patience replied. “And it’s still kind of close to Sioux Falls. So I can visit or help with hunts if you guys need it.”
“It’s a seven hour drive.”
Patience shot her a quick grin as they headed down the concrete stairs. “Like I said, close! Plus, they were offering the biggest scholarship.”
Alex rolled her eyes. “Good luck keeping a car on this campus. I almost mowed down about fifty people.”
They stepped out onto a busy pedestrian mall. Madison wasn’t exactly a bustling metropolis, but she supposed it beat Sioux Falls.
“So, what’s first on the schedule?” Alex asked, shoving her hands into the back pockets of her jeans.
Patience checked her itinerary-which she had both typed up and printed out, the nerd-and turned back with a shrug. “Orientation and registering for classes doesn’t start until tomorrow. I figured I’d just walk around, get used to the city. I have a list of stuff to see?”
“So we’re going to be tourists?” Alex asked.
Her tone was enough to clue Patience in on how she felt about that plan, enough to make her look a little embarrassed, but she didn’t let it sway her. “What, you’re so allergic to fun that you’d rather just be chaperoning me to dumb college stuff?”
Well, sure, when she put it like that it didn’t sound much better. It was one of the things she liked about Patience, that she didn’t usually take anyone’s shit. She had a weird, nerdy self-confidence thing going on that Alex admired. Even Claire had come to respect her a bit for it. Still, Alex rolled her eyes. No reason to give her a big head. “Fine, what’s first on your list?”
“This way.”
The first thing on Patience’s list ended up being the state capitol building. Which, sure, was nice as far as buildings went. It looked a lot like the U.S. Capitol, tall and white and domed. They gave free tours on the hour and Patience managed to convince her to tag along and listen to how it was constructed from 43 types of stone from six countries and eight states. Patience ate up all the trivia, leaning forward in her seat like she was honestly interested in the story of a previous capitol building getting burned down a hundred years ago. Nerd.
After the tour they climbed up to the observation deck, which ran in a ring around the dome. The capitol was in the center of Madison and there weren’t any tall buildings competing with it, so they had a great view of the entire city. The downtown was on a narrow strip of land wedged in between two lakes. Given that it was summer, the lakes were dotted with motorboats and people kayaking or paddleboarding. The wind was enough that Alex had to grab her hair to keep it from flying in her eyes, but the breeze felt good as it cut through the sticky summer air.
“Let’s take a picture,” Patience said.
Alex tried to glare, but months of living together seemed to have made Patience immune to her well-practiced grumpiness. They grabbed a couple selfies with the lake as a backdrop, then ran around the observation deck to grab a few more with the other lake.
“I’m gonna send these to Jody,” Patience said, tapping away at her phone as they navigated the steps back down to ground level.
“Great,” Alex drawled. “Evidence that we’re not boozing it up.”
“It is known as a party school.”
“See, the way you said that? That’s how Jody knows that you’re not going to drink anyway,” Alex teased. “Besides, it’s college, they’re all party schools. Or Hollywood has lied to me.”
When Patience suggested they visit the museum Alex finally put her foot down. She’d had enough history for the day. “Isn’t there anything actually fun to do in this town?”
Patience glanced down her list of activities and grimaced.
“That bad?”
“Uhh, let’s walk down this way,” Patience suggested. They were back on the pedestrian mall, headed towards the parking garage. The street was lined with shops and restaurants. They wove in and out of kitschy boutiques, laughing at punny art prints.
“We should pick up something for Jody,” Patience suggested.
“Yeah? You think Jody needs a cheese-themed throw pillow?”
“I can’t brie-lieve you even asked,” Patience said in a perfect deadpan.
Alex burst into laughter, there was no containing it.
“You’re such a dork,” she said as she finally stopped.
“That wasn’t a gouda joke?”
“Oh, you need to stop.”
Patience’s wild grin tempered into something more reasonable. “But seriously, I’ve been staying with Jody for months. And she’s covering this whole trip. She’s done a lot for me.”
“Yeah,” Alex said without elaboration. No matter what Jody had done for Patience, she’d done a thousand times more for Alex. Alex tried to help out around the house and she had a job now, but she still felt like a mooch.
Eventually they made their way down the whole street. Patience ended up getting Jody a t-shirt in the school colors, red and white. She lingered at the shirts that said ‘Wisconsin mom’ and ‘Wisconsin dad’. To lighten the mood Alex tried to convince her to get the ‘Wisconsin grandmother’ instead. In the end they got one with just ‘Wisconsin’ in that stereotypical block capital college font.
“Hey, I think we’re by the Terrace,” Patience said as they left the store.
“That better not be another museum.”
Patience shoulder checked her as she consulted the map on her phone. “No, it’s supposed to be a nice place to, you know, hang out. It’s on the lake.”
“Sounds great. Lead the way.”
Patience
The Memorial Union Terrace was only a few blocks away. It was a stone patio wedged between the vaguely Italianate student union building and one of the city’s lakes-Patience couldn’t remember the name. Even in the middle of a weekday it was packed with people. There were stands for food and beer and ice cream and people sat around on brightly colored metal chairs enjoying the breeze off the lake as they watched people sail or windsurf.
They each got an ice cream cone and claimed one of the picnic tables right next to the lake. There was music playing over speakers closer to the building, but down here the water lapped softly at the rocky shoreline.
“So you’re just gonna go to college?”
“Just?” Patience echoed, a little touchily. She’d already put up with enough scathing remarks from Claire.
“You know what I mean.”
“Is that so weird?” Patience asked. “Going to college? Not wanting to be a hunter? You’re going to nursing school.”
“Well, yeah, but it’s not college like this. I’m still living with Jody. But you left your home to hunt.”
“No, I left because I had a vision and my dad couldn’t accept that,” Patience said. She didn’t mention that her dad had been texting her. Not anything crazy, just checking in, asking how she was doing. She’d been texting back a little, but she still wasn’t ready to go home. “I wanted to help. But I’m not cut out to be a hunter, you know? I’m not like Claire. I’m not even like you.”
“I’m not a hunter,” Alex said.
“Yeah, but the way you cut into that… that thing? From the other world? You’re tough. I just don’t know if I can be that.” Patience didn’t know what she wanted to study, but after watching Alex handle the monster she was pretty sure it wasn’t anything in the medical field.
“You don’t want to be a full time psychic?” Alex asked.
The question was more rhetorical than anything, but Patience couldn’t help but give it a serious answer. “I considered it. My grandmother was.”
She expected a joke, but instead Alex’s voice got soft. “Were you guys close?”
Patience nodded. “We used to live near her, so I spent whole summers at her house. I would hide in this cabinet while she had customers and listen to their problems. She’d always tell me after which ones she was honest with and which ones she told a nice story.”
“She sounds nice.”
“Yeah,” Patience said. “And then when my mom died my dad told me that she was just a liar, that she was never psychic. I never saw her again after the funeral. I think it’s kind of finally hitting me that I’m not going to see her again.”
“My grandma died too,” Alex said abruptly. It managed to shake Patience out of the funk she’d been talking herself into.
“Yeah?”
“I lived with her,” Alex continued. “I don’t even remember my mom, just my grandma. She died before… I hadn’t seen her in a long time.”
“I’m sorry,” Patience said, completely inadequately. It was all she had.
“You really think you can get out of hunting?”
“Maybe it doesn’t have to be all or nothing, right? Jody and Donna don’t do it full time,” Patience said. “I could help you guys on weekends. But I want a life, too.”
“Yeah, I get that,” Alex said, and Patience figured she did. Alex wasn’t really a hunter either, despite serving as a medical examiner for freaky monsters from another dimension. She worked as a CNA at Sioux Falls General Hospital at night and took classes towards becoming a nurse during the day. She didn’t have much of a life beyond that, though. Some of the things Alex said hinted at an ex-boyfriend and that it had ended poorly, so Patience hadn’t pried. What Patience had just learned about her grandmother was more than she’d learned in months of living with her. She thought about asking more right now. She could, probably. The time seemed right.
Instead she consulted her print-outs. It was dinnertime and the ice cream hadn’t exactly sated her appetite. She’d found plenty of recommendations for places to eat. They could make their way back to the car, eat closer to the capitol square.
Something prickled along the back of her neck and she looked up to find a girl staring at her.
The girl had long, red hair and freckles stood out on her pale skin. She looked about the same age, maybe another incoming freshman. She was standing on one of the piers, maybe twenty feet away, and staring right at Patience.
Patience’s first thought was annoyance. It hadn’t escaped her notice that while Madison was moderately more diverse than Sioux Falls, it was still way whiter than what she was used to growing up in Atlanta. Patience stood out.
But then the girl gave her a smile and the annoyance melted away. She glanced back down at her papers, but when the feeling didn’t go away she looked back up. The girl was still there, standing, staring. Patience felt her face heat up and she shifted in her seat. Was she trying to flirt or something?
Patience turned towards Alex, but Alex wasn’t there. Nobody was there. She looked around wildly. She was standing, with no memory of having gotten up. There were no brightly colored metal chairs, no buildings. Trees surrounded her, but there was a fire pit in a nearby clearing with a couple wooden benches. The light had dimmed. And the girl was there, hair glinting in the setting sun, standing on the edge of the shore, which was all dirt and plants and roots and leaf litter.
“What…” Patience started to ask, but was interrupted as the girl was thrown forward as if something hit her in the back.
There was someone there, someone else, but in the deep shadows of the trees Patience couldn’t make out their face. The girl was on her hands and knees in the brush and then something struck her again, snapped her head to the side and opened up a jagged cut that began pouring blood, darker red against her bright red hair.
Patience stood frozen in place, she couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything but watch as the girl collapsed and lay still.
Hands fell onto her shoulder and she jerked and then she was back, the sun high and bright and shining off the lake into her eyes.
“Hey,” someone was saying in her ear and Patience turned to find Alex still holding onto her shoulders, concern etched onto her face. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” Patience replied absently. She looked back out at the pier, but the girl wasn’t there.
“You sure? Because you just stood up and looked like a zombie.”
“I think I had a vision,” Patience said. “Did you see where that girl went?”
“What girl?” Alex asked, following her gaze.
“She was standing on the pier. White girl, my age. Long, red hair.”
Alex shook her head. “I didn’t see anyone, but I wasn’t exactly looking. Too busy freaking out over your weird ass.”
Patience was already searching the Terrace, which had somehow managed to fill up even more with people, hoping to catch a glimpse of red hair. She had to say something, had to warn the girl. She shrugged off Alex’s hands and strode through the crowd, still searching every face she could for the girl she’d just seen. The vision hadn’t taken long, so Patience figured the girl couldn’t have gotten that far.
She ‘excuse me’-ed her way through a line of people waiting for beer and climbed low steps up to the top of the Terrace. Looking out over the crowd she could see several people with red hair, but none that looked like the girl from her vision.
A hand closed around her arm and she started, but it was only Alex again.
“Hey, you gotta chill, okay?”
“I have to find her,” Patience said. “I saw her die. I have to stop it.”
“Wait, hold on,” Alex said, shaking the arm in her grasp. “We will, okay? We will. But you need to calm down and tell me what you saw.”
Patience took a deep breath and finally looked away from the crowd of people. Alex looked worried. It was weird seeing such raw emotion on the face of a girl who wore aloof-ness like a flak jacket.
“Okay,” Patience agreed with a nod. They moved into the Union building and found a seat in a quiet, dark corner.
“Tell me about the vision.”
So Patience did. She went through seeing the girl on the pier before describing her vision. The woods, the shore, the blood.
“So it didn’t happen here.”
Patience shook her head.
“That’s good, that gives us time. Did you get any sense for when it took place?”
Patience closed her eyes. “It was… sunset. I think. I couldn’t see the sun, but the light was kind of like that. I guess it could’ve been sunrise?”
“Let’s assume sunset. That gives us a couple hours.”
Patience glanced back outside. “I don’t think it was tonight. The sky was clear in the vision.” Outside clouds had rolled in, some of them dark and hinting at a very Midwestern summer storm.
“Awesome, that gives us more time,” Alex said. “We should call Jody.”
Patience nodded even as part of her rebelled. It made sense to call Jody, but she didn’t want to. Because the second she did, then she had to acknowledge that this was a hunt. Maybe not a normal one-she didn’t think that the attacker in her vision had been a werewolf or monster, other than the normal human kind-but a hunt nonetheless.
Alex already had her phone out and dialed, so Patience let herself gaze out the windows over the people still enjoying the last of the nice day on the Terrace. She let her mind wander back to the vision as she absently searched the oblivious crowd for the red-haired girl.
“Okay,” Alex said. Patience turned just in time to see her shoving her phone into her back pocket. “Jody’s gonna see if Donna can come down from Minnesota. We’ll start the search tomorrow.”
“I’ve got registration tomorrow,” Patience pointed out.
“It’ll be fine, Donna and I can handle it.” Patience still wasn’t sure about that and some of the hesitation must’ve shown on her face because Alex was suddenly standing and pulling her up. “Come on, let’s get back to the car before that rain hits. We can go check into the hotel.”
Alex
The hotel was nice, a chain just outside of downtown. Two queens, a mini-fridge, flat screen TV.
Alex opted to take a shower. The combination of driving all day and walking around in the sticky summer air had left a thin layer of gross on her. When she stepped back into the room, wrapped in a towel, she found Patience sitting against the headboard on one of the beds, flipping aimlessly through the channels.
“You look like crap,” Alex said.
“Thanks,” Patience replied in a tone that almost could’ve been sarcasm if she’d put just a little more effort in.
Alex turned to her suitcase and reached for some clothes for sleeping in, but changed her mind. She glanced back at Patience’s dead-eyed stare.
“Okay, put on something less… dorky.”
That pulled Patience’s attention away from the television. “Why?”
“We’re going out.”
“I’m not really in the mood.”
“Does it look like I care?” Alex asked, picking out a nicer shirt and her better jeans.
“I don’t want to go out.”
“I’m sure you don’t,” Alex said. “But I’m not wasting my chance to have fun in a city where my foster mom isn’t the Sheriff.”
That finally got a smile. “You got a plan?”
Alex smirked. “You have your list, I have mine.”
The bar was on the other side of town, but it wasn’t like ‘other side’ was all that far in a city this size. Alex wedged the car into a parking spot on the street a few blocks down.
“Okay, now, the trick when using a fake ID-”
“Oh, shut up,” Patience interrupted. “I’ve used a fake ID before.”
“You? Really?”
Patience gave her a look and got out of the car.
Even though it was still pretty early in the evening there was already a line to get into the bar. The building itself looked like a strip mall, but the plate glass windows flashed with strobing lights that reflected off the still-wet street from the storm that had just passed through. The people in line were an eclectic bunch. Alex tapped her boots as they stood in line, watching Patience out of the corner of her eye. They inched through the line to the bouncer, who barely even glanced at their IDs before stamping their hands and waving them through.
The front room was the bar, with the dance floor further back. The bar itself was a massive, rectangular thing, accessible from all sides, the entire surface lit by flashing multicolored lights. Alex flagged down one of the bartenders. “Rum and coke.”
The bartender turned to Patience. “Uh, what’s on tap?” After listening to the options, she picked a beer with the hilarious name of ‘Spotted Cow’. People in Wisconsin were weird.
“You like beer?” Alex asked as the bartender slid their drinks over. She paid with cash, wary of Jody somehow getting ahold of her credit card statement. Alex was going to be 21 in a couple of months, but Patience was still 18 and she didn’t think Jody would appreciate this little bout of rebellion.
Patience nodded and took a drink. She made a little face at the taste, but didn’t seem to hate it. “Beer’s okay. Figure I better get used to it, right?” She set the drink down and leaned in. “Alex. This is a gay bar, right?”
“Well it’s not like this city has a lot of options when it comes to dance clubs,” Alex said, immediately defensive. “Why, you got a problem with it?” She tried to keep her voice light.
“What? No, of course not. Just… you had a boyfriend, right?”
“Yeah. So?”
“Okay.”
“Okay? That’s it?”
Patience shrugged. “I don’t care.”
Alex felt a smile creep onto her face and turned away. Wouldn’t be any good to lose her reputation as the crotchety one. “What about you?”
“Me?”
“Yeah.”
Patience shrugged again. “I don’t know, it’s never been that important to me.”
“Fair enough,” Alex said, taking another sip of her drink, suppressing the urge to scrunch her face up. It was strong. She glanced over and couldn’t believe that Patience was just casually drinking a beer. Maybe she wasn’t such a geek after all. “I wasn’t lying, though. There really aren’t many places to go and dance in this city. You probably should’ve thought of that before applying here.”
“Yeah, that was really high on my priority list.”
“Should’ve been,” Alex said, shooting her a grin. She downed more of her drink. “C’mon, let’s check this place out.”
The dance floor wasn’t crowded yet, a couple of circles of friends and a few other stragglers. Alex pulled Patience along and they found an open spot, their dancing only hindered by their efforts not to spill their drinks.
The songs all top 40 and pop, not Alex’s usual preference, but they had good beats and a live DJ who blended one song into another seamlessly. They floated into the groups of friends, singing along with every obnoxious song they recognized. Alex left before her drink was even finished to get refills and found that the bar area had added buff, scantily clad male dancers on small wooden platforms, which she eyed appreciatively. She really should’ve reconsidered this college thing.
Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out from her back pocket. The number was unknown and she ducked towards the quieter front of the bar to take it.
“Hello?”
“Alex?” She had to strain to hear the voice, but it was definitely familiar.
“Yeah. Who is this?”
“It’s Sam Winchester. Jody sent me to help you guys with your hunt.”
Aw, shit.
She maneuvered past the bouncer and the line and stepped out into the cooling night air. “Hey, Sam. I thought she was gonna call Donna.”
“Donna had a thing, but I was in Chicago. I’m just getting into town. I know it’s getting late, but I thought you guys might be up.”
“Uh, yeah, yeah, we are,” Alex stammered.
“Hey, it’s okay, it sounds like quite the party. I’m just going to crash at the hotel and we can pick it up in the morning. Sound good?”
“Yeah,” Alex said with a relieved sigh. “Thanks, Sam.”
“No problem.”
She hung up and, flashing the stamp on her hand, re-entered the club.
A couple hours and more than a couple drinks later found them still dancing, having made a few friends. The dance floor was much more packed, but way more friendly than the only other club Alex had been to, a place Henry had snuck them into. But that made sense; Henry sucked. Everyone at this bar was better than Henry.
The girl Alex was dancing with had given her name, but it was lost to the pounding music. She was cute, short brown hair. Alex liked the way she scrunched up her nose every time a new song came on as she spent a couple seconds trying to place it.
“Hey.”
Alex turned to find a tall guy with hair dyed bright red. “Yeah?”
“Is your friend okay?”
Alex looked. Patience wasn’t in the dance circle anymore. She glanced around, but didn’t see the psychic anywhere.
“I think she went to the bathroom,” the guy said.
Alex nodded and excused herself to head deeper into the building. The bathrooms were huge and the music was piped in through speaker in the ceiling, but the moment she entered she could still hear the unmistakable sound of retching.
“Patience? That you?” The only response was a groan, but it sounded familiar. Alex leaned down to look under the stalls and found herself tipping over onto her hands. At least the floor was pretty clean. “Whoops.” She giggled.
Patience was kneeling next to a toilet, Alex could see her boots. “Hey,” she said, pounding on the door. “Let me in.”
There was a rattle-the lock-and then the stall door swung open. Alex stepped in and closed it behind her. “You okay?”
Patience shook her head before pitching forward and throwing up brightly colored liquid into the toilet. She’d switched to mixed drinks a little while back.
“Yeah, that’s not great. We should go.”
“Alex, you’re drunk.”
“What? No, I’m not.”
Patience leveled a glare at her.
“Well. Maybe.”
“Can you call a Lyft?”
Alex nodded, leaning on the stall door as she opened the app on her phone. “Aww, crap, it’s like super surge pricing.” She frowned, before a better idea occurred to her. “I’m gonna call Sam.”
“What?”
“Sam. He’s in town, Jody sent him.”
“Sam as in Sam Winchester? I thought she was sending Donna.”
“Nope, Sam. I’m gonna call Sam.”
“Alex, don’t.”
“Too late!” Alex crowed, phone already dialing.
Patience just groaned.
Sam picked up pretty quick for an old guy who was probably asleep. “Yeah?”
“Sam.”
“Alex? You okay?”
Alex gathered her wits together. She was going to sound sober. “I’m good, Sam. I’m good. Real good. But Patience is not. Not doing so good.”
“Are you… where are you guys?” Sam asked.
“We are at the bar, Sam,” Alex enunciated carefully. She was rocking this.
There was a chuckle from the other end of the line. “Yeah, I could’ve guessed that one. This bar have a name?”
Alex gave it.
“Okay, I’m only about ten minutes away. You guys going to be alright until I get there?”
“We will be okay,” Alex swore solemnly before hanging up. She looked down at Patience. “We going to be okay?”
Patience’s only response was another round of gagging.
“Stellar.”
A couple minutes later Patience seemed to have finished emptying her stomach and Alex realized that if Sam showed up she wouldn’t have a chance to say goodbye to the girl she was dancing with. But she couldn’t leave Patience. Fortunately, the nausea seemed to have abated a bit.
“Okay, we gotta go.”
“What?” Patience asked.
“Yeah, come on, get up.”
“Why?”
“It’s the girl’s bathroom,” Alex pointed out, perfectly rationally. “Sam can’t come in here.”
That seemed to do the trick, because Patience rose with a groan, even though Alex didn’t think the bar would be so uptight on policing the bathrooms. They leaned on each other as they made their way back into the dark of the dance floor. Alex spotted the girl with the short hair, who looked up and gave a wave. Alex moved forward, but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.
She looked over to find a broad chest under a black V-neck t-shirt. And then looked up to find Sam Winchester.
“Sam!” Alex chirped.
“Hi, Alex,” he said, laughing a bit. “Hey, Patience, you doing okay?”
Patience nodded. She didn’t seem nauseous anymore, but she was leaning heavily on Alex’s shoulder.
“Alright, let’s get you two back to the hotel.”
Sam turned aside and it was like Moses parting the red sea. He was a head taller than most of the people there and they all moved out of his way. Alex caught plenty of appreciative looks from both genders, but Sam himself seemed oblivious. Honestly, Alex hadn’t ever seen Sam in so few layers. He had a surprisingly great body, broad shoulders and a trim waist. Why did he usually dress like a lumberjack?
Although, to be fair, the lumberjack look would probably clean up here. Especially with the beard he was sporting at the moment.
The bouncer stopped them for a second and Sam exchanged a couple quiet words with him. Alex tried to smile like she wasn’t hammered. Judging by the bouncer’s laugh it wasn’t entirely successful, but at least he seemed reassured that they weren’t being kidnapped.
The cool night air hit as they left the building and she felt herself sober up a bit.
Sam took the lead. “I’m parked a few blocks this way.”
Alex was just thinking that she really hoped Patience didn’t throw up in Sam’s big classic car when he fished out a set of keys and hit a button on a key fob. A modern sedan blinked its lights in return.
“Where’s your car?”
“Back at the Bunker,” Sam replied absently. Maybe. Or avoidingly. Was that a word?
Alex helped Patience into the back before climbing into shotgun. The car wasn’t new, but it wasn’t the antique that the Winchesters normally drove. Sam waited until she fumbled the seatbelt on before putting the car into drive.
“Are you even old enough to drink?” he asked, but not meanly.
“Claire makes awesome fake IDs,” Alex admitted.
“Not exactly what I was hoping she’d use those skills for,” Sam grumbled and something dinged in the back of Alex’s head. Claire said that Sam taught her how. Now Sam seemed upset. Damn.
“You’re not gonna tell Jody, are you?” Alex asked. Because it occurred to her then that maybe calling a Lyft would’ve been the subtler option.
But Sam just smiled. “About the drinking? No, I think by tomorrow morning you’ll have learned your lesson. I’m glad you didn’t try to drive.”
There was a silence, broken up by the soft click-click of the turn signal as Sam headed back to the hotel.
“What about the other thing?” Alex asked quietly.
Sam glanced over at her, but only briefly. He was a responsible driver. “Nothing for me to tell.”
“You know that was…”
“Yeah.”
“That doesn’t weird you out?”
“No, it doesn’t ‘weird me out’,” Sam said. “It wasn’t that different from the gay bars at Stanford.”
“You went to Stanford?” Patience broke in.
“That’s your question?” Alex asked, twisting around in her seat. “Really?”
“You feeling okay back there, Patience?” Sam asked.
The psychic gave them a thumbs up and shaky grin from where she was slumped against the door of the car.
“Good, because we’re here.”
And somehow they were.
Things went a bit wonky then as the booze caught up with her. She remembered Sam helping her get Patience to their room. And then it all went black.
Patience
Patience woke abruptly.
She was in a bed. In a hotel? Oh, god, how had she gotten here?
She rolled over, away from the sunlight painfully streaming in through the window, and caught a glimpse of clothes strewn across the floor. Her clothes, from the bar. She remembered the bar, the dancing, being in Madison for college. But her clothes were on the floor.
Shit, was she naked?
She pulled up the covers and was relieved to find out that she’d somehow changed into the t-shirt and athletic shorts she usually slept in. She had to commend her own drunk self for her foresight.
Alex was half-snoring in the bed closer to the door.
She glanced at her phone on the night stand-which drunk-Patience had been kind enough to plug in-and saw that it was still early. Registration started just before noon. Relieved, she sunk back down onto the comfortable bed.
Knock knock.
Patience groaned as she stood up, patting her hair into place. A glance through the peephole revealed a man Patience vaguely recognized as Sam Winchester. Flashes of memory came back to her from the night before. Sam had been there. Why was Sam there? Why was he here?
“Alex,” she hissed, retreating back into the room to stand at the foot of Alex’s bed.
Knock knock.
“Alex!”
The other girl’s eyes snapped open and she jerked upright in bed. “What? What’s happening?”
“Why is Sam Winchester here?” Patience whispered.
“Sam’s here?” Alex asked dumbly.
“He’s outside.”
Alex scrubbed her hands over her face. “Donna couldn’t make it, so Jody sent Sam along to help us with your vision. You didn’t let him in?”
“I don’t know him!” Patience said, throwing her hands out for emphasis.
Alex rolled off her mattress and ran absent fingers through her hair.
Knock knock knock.
“Okay, okay!” she called as she plodded over to the door and swung it open. “Hi, Sam.”
“Hey, Alex.” He smiled and nodded past her towards where Patience was hanging back. “Hi Patience.” He had a nice smile but there were dark circles under his eyes. Patience suddenly wondered if he’d slept at all.
“Dude, it is way too early for this,” Alex groaned.
“You feeling okay?”
Patience couldn’t see it from where she was standing, but judging by the amused look on Sam’s face Alex’s glare must have been venomous. “You guys want to get some breakfast? Talk over your case? I hear something extra greasy is great for hangovers.”
Patience felt her stomach turn a bit as Alex replied. “You’re horrible.”
“I’m buying,” Sam offered as an olive branch.
Alex sighed. “Sure, just give us…” She glanced back at Patience.
“Take your time,” Sam said. “I’ll be in the lobby.”
They made it down forty-five minutes later and piled into Sam’s car.
“So where are we going? IHOP?” Alex asked.
Sam shook his head and turned them onto a busy road. “Nah. My family used to pass through Madison all the time. Still do on occasion. I know a couple good places.”
Mickie’s Dairy Bar was a diner that looked like it was dropped straight out of the 1950s, not so much ‘retro’ as just plain old. Across the street loomed the massive gray concrete football stadium. There was a short line of people stretching out the door, which sported a sign warning that they only took cash. The inside was decorated in red and white, with an ancient menu on one wall advertising food with prices all under a dollar and a more up-to-date menu in handwritten placards on the far wall.
“What do you recommend?” Patience asked.
“Dean’s favorite is the scrambler,” Sam said, before quickly twisting his body around in his seat to look at the menu. “Uhm, I used to like the pancakes, as a kid. They’re huge.” His voice was weird.
Patience glanced over at Alex, but only got a shrug in response.
Their booth butted up against the central area where the waitstaff bustled back and forth, making milkshakes and taking orders. When one of them stopped by, Sam ordered a vegetable omelet.
Patience just ordered a bagel. She was feeling better than when she first woke up, but she wasn’t sure she trusted her stomach just yet.
It was awkward. Patience had only met Sam once before, briefly, when they’d saved him and Dean from that alternate world. She’d interacted marginally more with Dean, when he’d helped save her from that wraith.
She hadn’t realized, based on that first meeting, that the brothers were very close. But everything she’d heard since then from Jody and Claire and Alex about the Winchesters suggested they were rarely apart. So Dean’s absence was conspicuous, but Patience didn’t really know if that was something she could ask about.
Sam seemed to be similarly at a loss for words. Or maybe he was lost in thought. Alex was scrolling through her phone. The silence stretched out between them.
Their food came out quickly. Alex’s chocolate chip pancakes were huge, almost bigger than the plate. Bigger than her head. Patience’s bagel suddenly looked pathetic and she finished it before Alex was even a fourth of the way through her breakfast. She was suddenly ravenous.
Probably because she’d thrown up her dinner.
Alex seemed to notice and cut a hunk off her pancakes and slid them onto Patience’s plate.
Sam watched them tear into their food. “You two should be so much more hungover.”
“Benefits of youth, old man,” Alex shot back.
Patience focused on her food. She had a lingering headache, but it was already clearing up as she chugged from her tiny red water glass.
“So, tell me about your vision,” Sam said as they were finishing up.
Patience fiddled with her napkin as she sketched out the details of the vision in broad strokes, explaining about seeing the girl with the red hair and her murder. Sam took it all in stride, his expression intent.
“Can you tell me anything about the location of the murder?”
“Uh,” Patience said. “There was water and some trees?”
“That the best you can do?” Alex asked.
Patience glared at her. “I don’t really want to remember it, you know?” she snapped.
“Woah, Patience, that’s okay. I understand,” Sam said.
The stress and worry just seemed to hit all at once and she couldn’t help the acid in her response. “Really? You understand how it feels to see visions of people being murdered?”
Sam rocked back in his seat a bit. “Uh, actually,” he said with a grimace. “I do.”
“What?” Alex asked.
“I used to have visions. They were also of death. Usually pretty gruesome deaths.”
“You’re psychic?” Patience asked.
“Not like you are and I don’t get them anymore.”
“How did you make them stop?” She didn’t think there was any way to stop her visions. But if she could, maybe she could have a normal life. Go back home sometimes. Be a college student without having to worry about fitting a hunt in between classes.
Then she caught Sam’s expression and even before he spoke realized there was no hope for her there.
“Oh.”
“I’m sorry, I wish I could help you.”
She shook her head, staring down at her empty plate as she tried to will away the burning behind her eyes. Stupid to get her hopes up. She wasn’t going to cry like a baby about it.
“But maybe I can still help,” Sam suggested.
“Yeah?” She couldn’t help but keep the skepticism out of her voice.
“I’ve met a lot of psychics, had to deal with my own powers. I can give it a shot.” He leaned forward a bit in his seat. His voice was soft, earnest. “These are your visions, Patience. You can control them.”
“Don’t you think I’ve tried?”
“Your grandmother could do it,” Sam pointed out. “You can too. Now, do something for me, close your eyes.”
She exchanged a glance with Alex, who shrugged, decided what the hell. Everyone else talked about the Winchesters like they were experts in everything. Why not this too? She shut her eyes.
“Picture the beginning of your vision, just the girl.”
She took a deep breath and brought up the mental image. The girl was standing just inside the tree line, on the leaf-strewn shore. It was peaceful, but Patience knew that any second…
“Now, freeze it. Press pause.”
She opened her mouth to tell him that it wouldn’t work, but her subconscious must have been listening because the vision had already stopped. The waves in the vision froze into a solid jagged surface. The breeze rustling the trees stilled. “Huh.”
“Alright, now look around. Tell me what you see.”
She glanced through the unmoving foliage. “Trees?” The light was dim as the sun set. “Uh, there’s a fire pit, like a camp site. Some benches.”
“Good, that’s really good. Anything else? Can you see any buildings?”
“No, it’s just woods. But they’re not deep. I think it might be an island? It’s surrounded by water.” She turned towards the gap in the trees past the girl. “There are some buildings in the distance. I can see across to the other side of the lake. I can see the capitol.”
“That’s good, Patience. Anything else?”
She opened her eyes. “No. But it was definitely across the lake somewhere. That’s a start, right?”
Sam smiled. “Definitely. We’ll find the location and be there at sunset.”
Relief rushed through Patience. “You don’t think it’s too late?”
“No violent crimes came across the police scanner last night,” Sam said. “So there’s a good chance.”
Patience snuck a glance at her phone as a thought occurred to her. “Do you guys need my help with that?”
Sam looked a little confused, so Alex broke in to explain. “Patience has to register for classes today, it’s some whole big thing. That’s why we’re in Madison.”
Sam blinked. “You’re going to school here?”
Patience shrugged, hoping to play it off. “Uh, yeah. It’s close enough I can come back if Jody needs me, but… uh…”
Against expectations, though, Sam seemed thrilled. “That’s amazing, it’s a good school. I’m sure it wasn’t easy to get in with everything going on this past year.”
She gaped, just a little, in shock. She’d figured one of the infamous Winchesters would be more like Claire, wondering why anyone would waste their time on anything that didn’t involve shooting or stabbing. Although she supposed it shouldn’t have surprised her. Dean told her to get out of hunting, too. It didn’t escape her notice that the two biggest names in hunting didn’t seem to like it any more than she did.
“You said you went to Stanford?” Alex asked.
Now it was Sam’s turn to look uncomfortable. “Yeah. For a couple of years.”
There was clearly a story there, but Sam was just as clearly not talking about it. That was fine with Patience. “Can you drop me off for registration?”
Part Two
Master Post