Tell me where we go from here 14/?
Chapter 14
Amy Summers was a woman in her forties with a no bullshit attitude which reminded Sam of Ellen. She had been expecting them and had coffee and cookies ready when they arrived in the early afternoon.
"I met Bobby almost ten years ago." She said with a distant look in her eyes. "The building I was living in happened to be in the hunting ground of a monster and it nearly killed me. Bobby saved my life." She shook her head. "I can't believe he's dead."
"Believe me, we can't believe it either." Sam said with a side glance at Dean. His brother never talked about his feelings but Sam knew that Dean still missed the older hunter. Bobby had left a hole in their souls nothing could ever fill.
Amy served them the coffee before she started talking about why she'd called them.
"A family moved in next door a few weeks ago." She said and Sam sat up straighter. "I don't think they're human."
She looked from one to the other, challenging them to call her nuts.
"What makes you think that?" Sam asked while his mind provided him with a number of things that could pass as an ordinary family.
Amy locked eyes with him as if she tried to figure out if he was mocking her or not but then she seemed to decide that he was at least willing to hear her out.
"Well." She relaxed visibility. "At first I just thought they like to stay to themselves. They didn't invite the neighbors over when they moved in, they didn't follow the invitation to the Calmer's BBQ, things like that. Their boy goes to school but as far as I can tell he comes home right away and never brings a friend with him. He never leaves the house except for school."
Sam nodded to that. That wasn't exactly social behavior but nothing indicating that there was something wrong with the neighbors.
"What about the parents?" Cas spoke up. So far he had kept quiet but now he entered the conversation. Amy looked at him as if she only now realized that there was a third guest. Like usual on a hunt Cas had let the brothers take the lead. It was good to see that Cas felt confident enough in this to ask questions, though.
"She works as a nurse and I think he has a job in a grocery store." She shrugged, indicating that she wasn't sure. "They leave for work but that's it. I saw her in the hospital when I went there for a check-up. Not the best bedside manners for a nurse, let me tell you." She offered cookies. "She was creepy."
"Creepy?" Dean asked around half a cookie. "How?"
Sam glared at him but Dean just brushed crumbs from the front of his shirt, completely unimpressed by Sam's glare of death.
"Fresh out of the oven this morning." She said with a smile and offered Dean another cookie. At least she'd found one willing victim. Sam tried to tune out the crunching noises coming from Dean.
"There was something wrong with her eyes." She said. "They were cold and dead and she didn't smile once."
"That's not exactly what we're looking for." Sam tried to put it as politely as possible. So far he wasn't seeing a case here.
"There are strange lights and noises at night." Amy continued. "And people are falling ill."
"Ill?" Sam perked up. That was something he could work with. "Like seriously ill?"
"Nobody died or anything." Amy shook her head. "But I know that Chrissy, the little Calmer's girl, is in the hospital. And her parents don't feel well either. They live on the other side of them." She dropped her voice at the end here as if she feared the neighbors would hear her.
It was at least worth a look, Sam decided. They had worked with less.
"Where are you staying at?" Amy asked when they were ready to leave.
"We don't know yet." Dean answered for them. "Any motels you can recommend?"
"Motel?" She scolded at that. "Nonsense. I've a big house, there's more than enough room. If one of you don't mind the couch."
"Thank you." Sam hurried to say. "But that's not necessary. Really."
"From here you have a direct view on the house." Amy said and Sam had to admit she had a point there.
"You sure you want to take in three strangers?" Dean shook his head in disbelieve. "You're nuts."
"I knew Bobby." She dismissed that. "Not very well but I knew him. And the way you're talking about him ..." She locked eyes with every single one of them. "And you believe me that there's something going on next door."
Sam turned towards Dean and their eyes met. Dean tilted his head and shrugged one shoulder and with that it was settled.
"Okay, we stay." Sam gave in.
"I'll get the guest room ready." And with that she was gone, leaving three men she'd never met before in her living room.
Sam stared after her but then shook his head in amusement. Dean was already at the window, peering out without disturbing the curtains.
"I'll see if she needs any help." Cas announced and went after Amy.
"You see anything?" Sam stepped closer to his brother.
"A house." He answered. "And a garden that needs some gardening." He stepped back from the window.
Sam checked his watch. "It's too late to have a closer look, the boy should be home any minute now."
They didn't need to talk about the plan. Observation with them taking turns until the family left in the morning. Then they would sneak over and see what they could find.
Cas and Amy weren't back a few minutes later and there was nothing else to do for them than to wait. And for Dean to empty the plate of cookies.
"How is Cas?" Sam asked.
"Fine." The grin on Dean's face that showed more half eaten cookies than Sam ever wanted to see stopped him from asking farther. They both knew that Cas was far from fine. But they were working on it. As soon as this case was solved Sam would find Claire Novak. Hannah came to mind and he wondered if he should mention her but decided against it. There wasn't really anything to tell.
"The guest room is ready." Amy came back with Cas trailing behind her. "One can sleep in my daughter's room and one has to take the couch down here." She had a meaningful look at the couch Dean was sitting on surrounded by crumbs. "But I guess I'm going to vacuum it first."
At least Dean had the decency to blush at that and to mumble an apology around a still full mouth.
"We're going to observe the house from here." Sam pointed at the window from where they had the best view on the neighbors. "We'll take turns over night so one of us will be awake at all times. No need to use your daughter's room."
For sure she had put new sheets on the bed and all that but he didn't feel comfortable with sleeping in her daughter's bed.
"You're daughter is in college?" Dean guessed.
Amy nodded. "I knew she would leave one day but with my husband dead for almost ten years it had always been just us. And now I only see her over the holidays."
Her eyes fell on some pictures on the mantel of the fireplace showing a happy family. Some where older with all three of them, others newer with the girl growing up but without the father in the pictures.
"I'm sorry." Sam felt the need to say. It didn't matter how long ago somebody died it came back fresh and raw once in a while, he knew that.
"It's been a long time." She said and teared her eyes off the pictures. There was still sadness in her voice and maybe even bitterness but Sam didn't blame her for that. He had lost enough loved ones to relate.
Sam stayed at Amy's to keep an eye on the house and the boy who had come home by now. Dean and Cas went out to have a look at the parents. At least the husband would be easy to find and with three more people in the house Amy would need more food anyway. After the grocery store they would check the hospital for the mother.
"Have you known Bobby for long?" Amy took a seat next to Sam who had dragged a chair over to the window. From here he could see the driveway and had even a good view into the kitchen over there without getting seen himself. He had some binoculars ready so he wouldn't miss anything going on in the kitchen.
"He was like a father to Dean and me." Sam answered after a moment.
"You two are brothers?" Amy asked. So far they had themselves introduced by first names only and hadn't mentioned that they were brothers.
"Yeah, Dean is the older one." Sam confirmed. "And Cas ..." He had no idea how to define their relationship with Cas. "Cas is a friend."
"More than just a friend to your brother." Amy had a knowing smile on her lips.
"That obvious?" Sam couldn't help but chuckle to that. "They think they can fool everybody."
"The way they're looking at each other? Not a chance." She leaned closer as if she was about to tell him a secret. "Besides, your friend had a few nice words to say about your brother."
"If he was too blunt, I'm sorry." Sam hurried to say. "He's socially a little on the awkward side."
Sam knew Cas and to him it was just Cas being Cas but other people realized very quickly that he was different. They usually couldn't put their finger on it but on a deeper level they just knew that the being in front of them wasn't human.
"It's fine." She assured him. "It's nice to see young people in love."
Sam wasn't sure if Dean still counted as young and how old Cas was he didn't even want to think about. But it was good to hear that it wouldn't cause them any problems.
"They were pining for each other for years, this is still new to them." He thought back to the morning when Dean and Cas had left their room and the only description could come up with was post-orgasmic afterglow. There had been a spring in Dean's steps he hadn't seen in years.
In the other house the boy entered the kitchen and Sam raised the binoculars to see what he was doing. He was just an ordinary boy, around twelve maybe, with sandy hair and a sweet face. There was nothing that struck Sam as not human but that didn't have to mean anything.
The boy took several things out of the fridge and made himself a sandwich.
"You see anything?" Amy asked from somewhere behind him. He hadn't even noticed that she wasn't sitting next to him anymore.
"A sandwich." Sam put the binoculars down when the boy left the kitchen with a plate in one hand and a glass of milk in the other. "Looks like he eats normal food."
With that information in mind his list of possible monsters had become a lot shorter.
"Sure." Amy's voice was still somewhere behind him but he didn't turn around. "He's a normal boy, he eats normal food."
At that Sam did turn around. Just in time to see the blow with the fire poker coming but to late to do anything about it.
Chapter 15
Masterpost