"Grave Situation" (Series, Chapter Two), Dean/Sam
Title: Chapter 2: "One Step Closer"
Series: Grave Situation
Author: tallisen (posted under lil_wincest)
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Dean/Sam
Summary: Dean and Sam investigate grave robberies in a small town in Nevada, and Sam begins to discover something he doesn't want to know about himself.
A/N: Another chapter, and therefore more to share! Again, reviews and comments are greatly appreciated! :)
Dean led the way into the town morgue with Sam following a few feet behind him. Dean was the king of bullshit so it was best to let him deal with the formalities, and Sam to patch up any discrepancies as they occurred.
The mortician was in the middle of an autopsy when they entered the back room, and appeared miffed they had intruded upon him. “Excuse me, what is the meaning of this?”
Dean whipped his badge out with an air of authority, only holding it long enough for the recognition to pass over the aged man’s face, before it went back into the folds of his jacket. “FBI. I’m Agent Williams and this is Agent Rudd. We’d like to ask you some questions about the grave robberies up on Chestwood Hill.”
“Oh,” The older man turned off the recorder on the side of the table and tossed his gloves into the garbage. “How can I help you?”
Dean locked his jaw in his most serious expression and stared the man down. “We have reason to believe the crimes are related to occult activity in the area, and need to know the cause of deaths of these nine people…” He procured a small list and handed it to the mortician.
“Alright…” The man didn’t seem too taken by the idea, but he crossed to a filing cabinet against the back wall and began to rifle through it. From the corner of his eye, Dean could see his brother eying the body on the autopsy table from a safe distance. They had seen a large number of mutilated corpses and demons in their line of work, but nothing quite so normal.
“Were there any unexplainable deaths in the last couple of days?” He asked, eyes still following his brother who seemed fixated. “Any neck or head injuries?”
“Nothing like that,” The doctor replied as he pulled several papers from the cabinet. “From the information we gathered in the original autopsies, there were numerous causes of death, ranging from heart attack to car accident for the people you listed. I can make you a copy…”
“Yes,” Dean replied firmly, checking his brother’s reaction at the same time. Sam was nodding, finally back in the game.
“Copies would help a lot.” The youngest Winchester added.
“Alright, if you gentlemen would wait out by the front desk, I’ll have my assistant make them up for you. I really must get back to my work.” The old man gestured with his arms full of folders back at the table. By instinct Dean followed the motion with his eyes and had all he could do to keep from shuddering at the display of bowels.
“Great, thank you.” He said with a grimace, “We appreciate your cooperation in our investigation.”
Once they were safely out in the parking lot Dean threw back his head and sighed. “So it’s most likely zombies, right?”
Sam was thumbing through the files in his arms, his brow creased with concentration. “These people died weeks apart, so it seems the most likely scenario.”
“Perfect.” Dean walked around to his side of the Impala and crossed his arms on the roof. “So there’s some guy out there who’s got nine stiffs in his backyard?”
“Apparently so.”
He watched Sam for a few seconds, considering their next course of action. He never had to face zombies before. He thought for the most part they were just movie legends, but he should have known better. From everything Dean had learned watching stuff like Army of Darkness and Re-Animator; he knew they had to find the person behind it all or it would never end. “Do they share anything in common?”
“Eh,” Sam shuffled the files a bit more and narrowed his eyes at the fine print. “Nothing other than the fact they’re all just a year apart from one another in age. Twenty, twenty one, twenty two, twenty one and twenty…”
“It sounds like they could have been in college.”
Sam opened the passenger door and tossed the files on the backseat. “There’s a community college in Nubath, right? We should go check it out.”
Between the two of them, they had split the list of names in half and set out on the small college campus to find people who knew them. From the beginning Sam knew it was like fishing for a needle in a hay stack, but they really didn’t have much else to go by. In fact, this was probably the weakest lead he had ever found himself investigating in their line of work.
The sun was high in the western sky when Sam found himself retracing his steps back to the outdoor cafeteria. Several students he passed were wearing light jackets, while others simply went about in t-shirts. He watched them with a small frown, very aware that the chill he felt hadn’t gone away yet. He had to tell himself now wasn’t the right time to be worried about it. Instead he focused on the men and woman sitting at the picnic tables eating late afternoon lunches and early dinners. He spotted a young red haired woman jabbing her salad with a fork and slowly edged closer for a better look. She had brilliant green eyes, and a pale drawn face, with even duller earth coloured clothing. But what really caught his attention was the finely polished silver pentacle hanging on a chain around her neck. He gathered his wits about him and stepped up beside her. “Hey.”
She glanced up at him; her food temporarily spared the abuse. “Hey, can I help you?”
“I’m Sam Winchester,” He offered a hand which she kindly accepted.
“Sarah Kibbler.”
“I was wondering,” Sam slipped onto the bench across the table from her, “If you happened to know a Sorsha Evans.”
Sarah’s lips moved into a thin line as she examined him. Sam did his best to appear mild mannered. And apparently, she was satisfied with what she saw.
“Yeah, she was a friend of mine…”
He held in a sigh of relief and folded his hands in his lap. “I’m trying to piece together an article for the college newspaper about her and some other students that left an impact on everyone here at NCC.”
“Oh?” Sarah jabbed her salad again, eyes dark and moody. “What are you going to say about her?”
“Well, I was hoping to interview some of her friends.” Sam said earnestly, “Maybe mention some of the school clubs she was involved with.”
Sarah snorted back laughter and waved her hand in apologies. “Sorry, it’s just; well… not everyone will want to know what Sorsha did in her spare time.”
Sam’s eyebrows rose thoughtfully. “Why’s that?”
Sarah leaned forward and dropped her voice. “Because she did witchy things and everyone else here is a stick up their butt conservative, that’s why.”
“What about,” Sam pulled his list of people out of his jacket pocket and picked a couple more names from it, deciding to test his luck. “Julie Andrews and Ryan Burge?”
Sarah’s eyes narrowed slightly, obviously not amused by his further prodding. “Yeah, they were too. What are you a rat or something? Trying to get us expelled?”
“No, I’m not.” Sam held his hands up defensively and smiled nervously. “Like I said, I’m just trying to write a paper about these students.”
Sarah pushed her bench back and stood up, hair and pentacle bouncing with the movement. “Well, whatever you’re doing, you’re gunna have to ask someone else, I have to get to class.”
She was already half way across the cafeteria before Sam was even out of his seat. He frowned at her retreating figure, and then dropped his gaze to the piece of paper in his hand. Well, there was a connection between a few of the missing bodies after all. He was sure after a little more investigating they’d find out the rest of them were practicing witches at Nubath as well. Now he just had to find Dean.
Devon was the hottest college student Dean had ever laid his eyes on. Her short black hair, brilliant blue eyes and pouting pink lips made him mad with lust. And she wasn’t afraid of his brazen advancements either! He rested his arm on the back of the park bench and nodded, pretending to listen as she spouted about her poetry class, and he inched his hand closer to her shoulder. What he really wanted to know was which dorm she lived in and if she had any roommates. He watched her lips form words, her small delicate hands gesture animatedly at the pros and cons of existentialism, and he started to wonder if Sam had really gone to college for the education or for the girls.
He was so intent on pretending he was paying attention, that he found himself staring into Devon’s bewildered face, having finished her speech quite some time ago. Dean cleared his throat and leaned forward, “Yea that sounds great. How about we go get something to eat…” Someone cleared their throat behind him and he realised that Devon had stopped talking because of the new arrival. Dean turned in his seat and scowled at his brother. “Sammy.”
“Sam.” Sam corrected. He was frowning at Dean with a set of powerfully troubled hazel eyes. They were telling Dean he was in some seriously deep shit.
“Uh, Devon…” He turned back to the sophomore with a sheepish grin on his face, “I’ve got to go…but if you have a number where I can reach you…”
“That’s alright,” She smiled sweetly and jumped to her feet. “I’ve got to be going. It was nice to meet you Danny.”
“Dean.” He said lamely as she hurried away. Dean sighed heavily and turned back to Sam who was still staring at him with the most disapproving expression. “What?” He huffed moodily.
“Nothing.” His brother crossed his arms over his chest and looked elsewhere. “I suppose you didn’t discover anything relating to the job?”
“Well I was going to get a room number of a really hot…” Dean swallowed back the rest of the sentence and shook his head, very aware of his brother’s stiff posture.
“Well I found out that at least three of the missing corpses were students here and they were active members of an underground pagan community.”
“Like the railroad?”
Sam rolled his eyes, “No, not the railroad.”
“Fight Club?”
“Yeah,” Sam decided not to argue his brother’s insistent pop culture references. “I have a feeling we’ll find out the others were connected to it as well. I met a girl who told me about Sorsha, she probably knows more, but she didn’t trust me.”
“Sammy,” Dean stood up and patted his shoulder. “That’s because you suck with girls. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.” His brother shrugged his hand away and started walking towards the parking lot. Dean watched him stalk away and felt a tinge of regret for being caught flirting. Maybe the joke had been a bit too much. Why it was his brother could always throw his feelings out of whack, he never knew. For any other single guy flirting with a girl was expected, but Sam treated it like a capital crime when he wasn’t there to mediate. Dean accepted the fact that he and his brother didn’t have a ‘normal’ relationship. But he still liked to have fun once and a while. He let out a frustrated sigh. Sam could be so complicated!
Dean and Sam checked into Motel 6 as the sun disappeared beneath western woods of Nubath. The clerk accepted their card without question, which left Sam feeling guilty for scamming him, and then they let themselves into room five on the ground level. As usual there were two single beds with stiff starched blankets, stains on the ceiling above them, and a desk with a lopsided lamp and phone. Sam tossed his bag onto the bed furthest from the door and collapsed on it.
Dean dropped his bag by the door and unpacked Sam’s laptop.
From Sam’s view point he could only see the ceiling, but the sound of steady clicking informed him his brother was already researching things on the internet. Both he and Dean had kept conversation to a minimum since they left the college, so there had been no discussion about what happened or hadn’t happened to be more precise. But that wasn’t new at all. There was a long list of pending confrontations that would most likely grow even larger before they ever dealt with them. He sighed as the weight of them settled over his shoulders along with something else he couldn’t quite place. Whatever it was, it left him feeling anxious. “What are you looking up?”
There was a pause in the clicking. “I don’t really know what to look up at this point. I tried finding a website for any pagan groups in the area, but there isn’t anything from what I can tell.”
“Well, what are you doing now?”
He heard the small unmistakable sound of Dean exhaling. “Looking up ways to locate the undead.”
That sounded entirely absurd. “Are there any?”
“Of course not. And unless we find someone who knows anything we’re out of luck.”
“And work.” Sam forced himself into a sitting position and scrubbed a hand through his shaggy brown hair. “Dean, we’ve got to face the fact that if nothing actually happens, we may have to move on.”
Dean stared at him, disbelief etched in his face. “You want to move on? What happened to doing the job?”
Sam glared at him. “There’s the job and then there’s nothing. And so far, we’ve got nothing.”
“Except that nine people died in a period of four weeks and at least three of them were connected. That sounds like something to me.”
His brother’s eager expression only served to irritate him. Sam stood up and paced the room. “Look, I’m not giving up. I’m just saying this feels like a wild goose chase. There’s nothing. No sightings of zombies or vampires or anything supernatural.”
“What?” His brother’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Why are you so…?” Sam gave him a look of desperation and his words faltered. What had gotten into his brother?
“You said we need to find a lead, right?” Sam asked, avoiding his question. “Why don’t we look for Sarah and see if we can get her to tell us more? Or look for a place where covens might meet in secret?” Dean just sat at the edge of his bed studying him, and for the first time Sam realised he was visibly shivering. He wrapped his arms around his chest, willing Dean not to mention it. To let sleeping dogs lie for the time being. “Well?”
Dean slowly nodded, choosing to honour his brother’s wish, and snapped the laptop closed. “Okay, it sounds like a plan.”
Series: Grave Situation
Author: tallisen (posted under lil_wincest)
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Dean/Sam
Summary: Dean and Sam investigate grave robberies in a small town in Nevada, and Sam begins to discover something he doesn't want to know about himself.
A/N: Another chapter, and therefore more to share! Again, reviews and comments are greatly appreciated! :)
Dean led the way into the town morgue with Sam following a few feet behind him. Dean was the king of bullshit so it was best to let him deal with the formalities, and Sam to patch up any discrepancies as they occurred.
The mortician was in the middle of an autopsy when they entered the back room, and appeared miffed they had intruded upon him. “Excuse me, what is the meaning of this?”
Dean whipped his badge out with an air of authority, only holding it long enough for the recognition to pass over the aged man’s face, before it went back into the folds of his jacket. “FBI. I’m Agent Williams and this is Agent Rudd. We’d like to ask you some questions about the grave robberies up on Chestwood Hill.”
“Oh,” The older man turned off the recorder on the side of the table and tossed his gloves into the garbage. “How can I help you?”
Dean locked his jaw in his most serious expression and stared the man down. “We have reason to believe the crimes are related to occult activity in the area, and need to know the cause of deaths of these nine people…” He procured a small list and handed it to the mortician.
“Alright…” The man didn’t seem too taken by the idea, but he crossed to a filing cabinet against the back wall and began to rifle through it. From the corner of his eye, Dean could see his brother eying the body on the autopsy table from a safe distance. They had seen a large number of mutilated corpses and demons in their line of work, but nothing quite so normal.
“Were there any unexplainable deaths in the last couple of days?” He asked, eyes still following his brother who seemed fixated. “Any neck or head injuries?”
“Nothing like that,” The doctor replied as he pulled several papers from the cabinet. “From the information we gathered in the original autopsies, there were numerous causes of death, ranging from heart attack to car accident for the people you listed. I can make you a copy…”
“Yes,” Dean replied firmly, checking his brother’s reaction at the same time. Sam was nodding, finally back in the game.
“Copies would help a lot.” The youngest Winchester added.
“Alright, if you gentlemen would wait out by the front desk, I’ll have my assistant make them up for you. I really must get back to my work.” The old man gestured with his arms full of folders back at the table. By instinct Dean followed the motion with his eyes and had all he could do to keep from shuddering at the display of bowels.
“Great, thank you.” He said with a grimace, “We appreciate your cooperation in our investigation.”
Once they were safely out in the parking lot Dean threw back his head and sighed. “So it’s most likely zombies, right?”
Sam was thumbing through the files in his arms, his brow creased with concentration. “These people died weeks apart, so it seems the most likely scenario.”
“Perfect.” Dean walked around to his side of the Impala and crossed his arms on the roof. “So there’s some guy out there who’s got nine stiffs in his backyard?”
“Apparently so.”
He watched Sam for a few seconds, considering their next course of action. He never had to face zombies before. He thought for the most part they were just movie legends, but he should have known better. From everything Dean had learned watching stuff like Army of Darkness and Re-Animator; he knew they had to find the person behind it all or it would never end. “Do they share anything in common?”
“Eh,” Sam shuffled the files a bit more and narrowed his eyes at the fine print. “Nothing other than the fact they’re all just a year apart from one another in age. Twenty, twenty one, twenty two, twenty one and twenty…”
“It sounds like they could have been in college.”
Sam opened the passenger door and tossed the files on the backseat. “There’s a community college in Nubath, right? We should go check it out.”
Between the two of them, they had split the list of names in half and set out on the small college campus to find people who knew them. From the beginning Sam knew it was like fishing for a needle in a hay stack, but they really didn’t have much else to go by. In fact, this was probably the weakest lead he had ever found himself investigating in their line of work.
The sun was high in the western sky when Sam found himself retracing his steps back to the outdoor cafeteria. Several students he passed were wearing light jackets, while others simply went about in t-shirts. He watched them with a small frown, very aware that the chill he felt hadn’t gone away yet. He had to tell himself now wasn’t the right time to be worried about it. Instead he focused on the men and woman sitting at the picnic tables eating late afternoon lunches and early dinners. He spotted a young red haired woman jabbing her salad with a fork and slowly edged closer for a better look. She had brilliant green eyes, and a pale drawn face, with even duller earth coloured clothing. But what really caught his attention was the finely polished silver pentacle hanging on a chain around her neck. He gathered his wits about him and stepped up beside her. “Hey.”
She glanced up at him; her food temporarily spared the abuse. “Hey, can I help you?”
“I’m Sam Winchester,” He offered a hand which she kindly accepted.
“Sarah Kibbler.”
“I was wondering,” Sam slipped onto the bench across the table from her, “If you happened to know a Sorsha Evans.”
Sarah’s lips moved into a thin line as she examined him. Sam did his best to appear mild mannered. And apparently, she was satisfied with what she saw.
“Yeah, she was a friend of mine…”
He held in a sigh of relief and folded his hands in his lap. “I’m trying to piece together an article for the college newspaper about her and some other students that left an impact on everyone here at NCC.”
“Oh?” Sarah jabbed her salad again, eyes dark and moody. “What are you going to say about her?”
“Well, I was hoping to interview some of her friends.” Sam said earnestly, “Maybe mention some of the school clubs she was involved with.”
Sarah snorted back laughter and waved her hand in apologies. “Sorry, it’s just; well… not everyone will want to know what Sorsha did in her spare time.”
Sam’s eyebrows rose thoughtfully. “Why’s that?”
Sarah leaned forward and dropped her voice. “Because she did witchy things and everyone else here is a stick up their butt conservative, that’s why.”
“What about,” Sam pulled his list of people out of his jacket pocket and picked a couple more names from it, deciding to test his luck. “Julie Andrews and Ryan Burge?”
Sarah’s eyes narrowed slightly, obviously not amused by his further prodding. “Yeah, they were too. What are you a rat or something? Trying to get us expelled?”
“No, I’m not.” Sam held his hands up defensively and smiled nervously. “Like I said, I’m just trying to write a paper about these students.”
Sarah pushed her bench back and stood up, hair and pentacle bouncing with the movement. “Well, whatever you’re doing, you’re gunna have to ask someone else, I have to get to class.”
She was already half way across the cafeteria before Sam was even out of his seat. He frowned at her retreating figure, and then dropped his gaze to the piece of paper in his hand. Well, there was a connection between a few of the missing bodies after all. He was sure after a little more investigating they’d find out the rest of them were practicing witches at Nubath as well. Now he just had to find Dean.
Devon was the hottest college student Dean had ever laid his eyes on. Her short black hair, brilliant blue eyes and pouting pink lips made him mad with lust. And she wasn’t afraid of his brazen advancements either! He rested his arm on the back of the park bench and nodded, pretending to listen as she spouted about her poetry class, and he inched his hand closer to her shoulder. What he really wanted to know was which dorm she lived in and if she had any roommates. He watched her lips form words, her small delicate hands gesture animatedly at the pros and cons of existentialism, and he started to wonder if Sam had really gone to college for the education or for the girls.
He was so intent on pretending he was paying attention, that he found himself staring into Devon’s bewildered face, having finished her speech quite some time ago. Dean cleared his throat and leaned forward, “Yea that sounds great. How about we go get something to eat…” Someone cleared their throat behind him and he realised that Devon had stopped talking because of the new arrival. Dean turned in his seat and scowled at his brother. “Sammy.”
“Sam.” Sam corrected. He was frowning at Dean with a set of powerfully troubled hazel eyes. They were telling Dean he was in some seriously deep shit.
“Uh, Devon…” He turned back to the sophomore with a sheepish grin on his face, “I’ve got to go…but if you have a number where I can reach you…”
“That’s alright,” She smiled sweetly and jumped to her feet. “I’ve got to be going. It was nice to meet you Danny.”
“Dean.” He said lamely as she hurried away. Dean sighed heavily and turned back to Sam who was still staring at him with the most disapproving expression. “What?” He huffed moodily.
“Nothing.” His brother crossed his arms over his chest and looked elsewhere. “I suppose you didn’t discover anything relating to the job?”
“Well I was going to get a room number of a really hot…” Dean swallowed back the rest of the sentence and shook his head, very aware of his brother’s stiff posture.
“Well I found out that at least three of the missing corpses were students here and they were active members of an underground pagan community.”
“Like the railroad?”
Sam rolled his eyes, “No, not the railroad.”
“Fight Club?”
“Yeah,” Sam decided not to argue his brother’s insistent pop culture references. “I have a feeling we’ll find out the others were connected to it as well. I met a girl who told me about Sorsha, she probably knows more, but she didn’t trust me.”
“Sammy,” Dean stood up and patted his shoulder. “That’s because you suck with girls. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.” His brother shrugged his hand away and started walking towards the parking lot. Dean watched him stalk away and felt a tinge of regret for being caught flirting. Maybe the joke had been a bit too much. Why it was his brother could always throw his feelings out of whack, he never knew. For any other single guy flirting with a girl was expected, but Sam treated it like a capital crime when he wasn’t there to mediate. Dean accepted the fact that he and his brother didn’t have a ‘normal’ relationship. But he still liked to have fun once and a while. He let out a frustrated sigh. Sam could be so complicated!
Dean and Sam checked into Motel 6 as the sun disappeared beneath western woods of Nubath. The clerk accepted their card without question, which left Sam feeling guilty for scamming him, and then they let themselves into room five on the ground level. As usual there were two single beds with stiff starched blankets, stains on the ceiling above them, and a desk with a lopsided lamp and phone. Sam tossed his bag onto the bed furthest from the door and collapsed on it.
Dean dropped his bag by the door and unpacked Sam’s laptop.
From Sam’s view point he could only see the ceiling, but the sound of steady clicking informed him his brother was already researching things on the internet. Both he and Dean had kept conversation to a minimum since they left the college, so there had been no discussion about what happened or hadn’t happened to be more precise. But that wasn’t new at all. There was a long list of pending confrontations that would most likely grow even larger before they ever dealt with them. He sighed as the weight of them settled over his shoulders along with something else he couldn’t quite place. Whatever it was, it left him feeling anxious. “What are you looking up?”
There was a pause in the clicking. “I don’t really know what to look up at this point. I tried finding a website for any pagan groups in the area, but there isn’t anything from what I can tell.”
“Well, what are you doing now?”
He heard the small unmistakable sound of Dean exhaling. “Looking up ways to locate the undead.”
That sounded entirely absurd. “Are there any?”
“Of course not. And unless we find someone who knows anything we’re out of luck.”
“And work.” Sam forced himself into a sitting position and scrubbed a hand through his shaggy brown hair. “Dean, we’ve got to face the fact that if nothing actually happens, we may have to move on.”
Dean stared at him, disbelief etched in his face. “You want to move on? What happened to doing the job?”
Sam glared at him. “There’s the job and then there’s nothing. And so far, we’ve got nothing.”
“Except that nine people died in a period of four weeks and at least three of them were connected. That sounds like something to me.”
His brother’s eager expression only served to irritate him. Sam stood up and paced the room. “Look, I’m not giving up. I’m just saying this feels like a wild goose chase. There’s nothing. No sightings of zombies or vampires or anything supernatural.”
“What?” His brother’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Why are you so…?” Sam gave him a look of desperation and his words faltered. What had gotten into his brother?
“You said we need to find a lead, right?” Sam asked, avoiding his question. “Why don’t we look for Sarah and see if we can get her to tell us more? Or look for a place where covens might meet in secret?” Dean just sat at the edge of his bed studying him, and for the first time Sam realised he was visibly shivering. He wrapped his arms around his chest, willing Dean not to mention it. To let sleeping dogs lie for the time being. “Well?”
Dean slowly nodded, choosing to honour his brother’s wish, and snapped the laptop closed. “Okay, it sounds like a plan.”