When the Sun Goes Down - Part Three
Title: When the Sun Goes Down
Author: youaredriving aka Scarletsptember
Fandom, Characters: CW RPF - Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki, Katie Cassidy, Mike Rosenbaum, Christian Kane, Chad Michael Murray
Rating: PG-13 (currently)
Warnings: Language, Violence, Supernaturl elements (Ghosts, werewolves etc)
Disclaimer: These people obviously do not belong to me, just the crazy plot line. So no harm intended!
Summary: Ex-NOPD Detective turned PI/Occult Specialist Jensen Ackles knows more about the world than most people care to even dream about. He sees what lurks at the corner of your vision, he's part of an underground supernatural community in New Orleans. When a local detective calls him in to aide on what is believed to be a serial killing Jensen gets more than he's bargined for. It isn't simple, they don't trust him and he has to deal with the lead detective, Jared Padalecki to top it all off.
Previous Parts:
One, Two
Jared followed Jensen up the stairs and across the wooden porch without a word. Jensen was really wondering when Jared’s actual freak out would begin. He made it all the way into the kitchen and halfway through a cycle of coffee before Jared started.
“He kept saying human.” Jared ran his fingers through sweaty hair. “Why’d he say that you brought a human along with you?”
“I knew he’d crack,” Chad cackled and Jensen rolled his eyes.
“Because that’s what you are Jared. You are a human. Misha isn’t.”
“What do you mean Misha isn’t a human?”
“I told you there were things more dangerous out there besides mad men with guns.”
“What did you do? You did something that stopped him. Whatever he is. What did you do?”
“Misha’s a vampire,” Jensen answered bluntly. “And I, well if you have enough ghosts in your past they can do more than just haunt you.”
“This isn’t possible.”
“You saw it as well as I did,” Jensen shrugged. “You watched him feed.”
“He could be just really freaky,” Chad suggested and Jensen really wanted to smack the ghost upside the head.
“Say I believe this and it’s not some kind of messed up dream,” Jared swallowed down a gulp of coffee and winced from the burn of it. “You really see ghosts? There are vampires out there?”
“There are a lot more than vampires out there, Jared.” Jensen ran a hand over his face. He plucked the empty mug from Jared’s hands and set it in the sink. “You need sleep. The bathroom is the first door on the left. I’ll get the pull out ready for you.”
Jensen watched as Jared spun around dizzily before anger slipped over the fear, “You expect me to just sleep after all of this? After finding out that the freaking monster under the bed is pretty much real? Hah, no. I don’t think so. I deserve more of an explanation than ‘vampires are real, you’re a human, and there are killer ghosts and go to sleep Jared’; it doesn’t work that way Jensen.”
“Go shower Jared,” Jensen rolled his lips together, “Get your head on straight and then I’ll answer any questions you have.”
“Don’t think that I’m not going to ask you a shit ton of questions. Because you giving me time to think them up is a bad idea.”
Jensen shook his head as he headed into the kitchen, “Bathroom is the first door on the left. I’ll find something you can wear.”
Jensen had just enough time to set a set of gym shorts and an oversized shirt out for Jared after he had gotten the pullout set up. He grabbed a glass of water and sat down on the recliner as he waited for Jared to come back into the living room. When he heard the detective pad back into the room he looked up to catch Jared yawning behind a hand and smirked. He wouldn’t be answering many questions tonight.
“So there are vampires,” Jared sprawled on the bed and stared up at the ceiling as he spoke, “And apparently there are ghosts - what else is there out there?”
“Well werewolves,” Chad answered even though Jared couldn’t hear him, “And then there are some really nasty creatures. Like pluck your teeth from your mouth and eat babies for breakfast kind of nasty.”
“Not helping,” Jensen rubbed a hand over his eyes.
“What’s not helping?” Jared looked at Jensen like the man had lost his mind. “Me?”
“Uh no, the ghost that I’ve picked up from the station.” Jensen waved Jared’s impending questions off and answered the first one. “There are werewolves, incubi, succubae, demons are real. The list goes on Jared.”
“How do we not know about them? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Humans don’t know about the supernatural because there is an underground community and networks within your own world that keeps everyone off the radar. If something bad happens, like say a werewolf killing a human, there are ways to deal with the crime. There are people who clean up the mess, punish the being that committed the crime and they make sure everything goes away before the police get wind of it.”
“You make it sound like the mob,” Jared threw an arm over his eyes and yawned again. Jensen remained quiet until Jared asked his next question. “How is it even possible that we, that humans, don’t know about this world?”
“When you have a secret you don’t want the world to know about because you know that they wouldn’t accept you, that they would rather kill or experiment on you it gets real easy to keep a secret.”
“And you,” Jared rolled onto his side looking at Jared. “You weren’t always like this? Were you?”
“Dying does funny things to a person.” Jensen answered softly. He ignored the way Jared sleepily stared at him. It almost felt intimate. All the belief and the fact that he was trying to understand the world that Jensen had so unwillingly been thrown into was all too much for him to handle. He clicked the lamp off and headed for his own room with a soft goodnight.
~*~
Waking up at six in the morning after a night like Jensen had last night just wasn’t fair. Waking up with a ghost sitting on the end of his bed and sunlight pouring through the windows had him pulling the covers over his head with a tired groan. “Go away. Jensen doesn’t live here anymore.”
“Tell that to the honey passed out on your sofa bed,” Chad snorted.
“So it was real,” Jensen threw the covers back with a heavy sigh and stared at the grinning ghost.
“Real as I am,” Chad stretched out on his back and stared up at the ceiling. “You know, you should probably get some coffee going. It won’t be long before the detective wakes up and has his freak out.”
Jensen frowned, “I don’t want to explain it all over again.”
“Well think of it this way,” Chad offered another line of thought to Jensen. “Now that Jared knows vampires are real, amongst other things, maybe he’ll stop thinking you’re the murderer and you can actually let him in on the investigation.”
‘You say that like it’s my case.”
“It kind of is. You’re the fountain of knowledge on the dark side of the moon.” Chad shrugged before disappearing from the room. Jensen rolled on his stomach, burying his face in his pillow hoping he could hide from the world a little longer. He gave up after a few minutes and the dull throb of a bad night of sleep wrapped around his forehead. The house was quiet except the soft whirr of the air conditioner cooling the house.
Jensen stepped softly through the living room, only pausing momentarily to see if Jared was actually getting any rest. The detective was sprawled out across the sofa bed; his arms thrown over his head and his face half turned into the pillow. Jensen eyed the line of toned muscle. The briefest feeling of want swirled in his gut before he shook the feeling away and headed into the kitchen.
Starting coffee was automatic. Rummaging through the fridge and cabinets for something edible wasn’t as easy. He wasn’t a breakfast person. He normally grabbed a granola bar and ate it on his way to the office. This morning, Jensen had a feeling he’d need more than a few cups of coffee and a granola bar.
“S’that coffee I smell?” The voice was raw with sleep and brushed straight down Jensen’s spine.
“Just about done,” Jensen nodded as he moved to grab two mugs from the cabinets. He leaned against the counter and watched as Jared settled down at the table with his face resting in his hands. “You sleep alright?”
“Had a few odd dreams,” Jared shrugged, “But I figure that’s got to be normal for someone who just figured out there’s a whole different world out there.”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“It makes sense though,” Jared leaned back in the chair and let out a sigh, “There are so many cases that didn’t make sense but if people knew about vampires or werewolves or whatever the heck else there is out there, those cases might have been solved.”
“There’s not much you can do about it man.”
“But I should be able to,” Jared snapped. “It’s my job to figure out what happened. So they can be put to rest.”
“You’d put me out of a job man,” Jensen poured two cups of coffee. He left his black and gestured to the sugar tin on the table. “I’ve got sugar and milk. I take my coffee black.”
“Sugar, lots of sugar,” Jared murmured to himself as he fixed his coffee up right. Jensen sat quietly watching Jared as he sipped on the steaming coffee. Sometime in the next few minutes Jared would probably lose his shit and he’d be the one to fix the detective all better again. Even if he didn’t know precisely how to do that.
Jensen had just started his second cup when Jared spouted off, “You think it’s vampires killing these girls, don’t you?”
Jensen choked on the mouthful of coffee he had and patted his chest hoping to make the hurt better. He looked up at Jared with wide eyes. Of course the detective would have connected the dots.
“Well?” Jared leaned forward resting his elbows on the table. “If it’s not vampires it’s something else supernatural. So what are you thinking? Where should I start looking?”
“You don’t look anywhere Jared,” Jensen held up a hand to stop the flood of words begging to leave the man’s lips. “You were there last night, same as I was. Working any homicide like this is dangerous. You add some kind of supernatural creature to the mix it’s worse. But you? You hardly know anything about vampires.”
“And you do?” Jared’s face was lined with anger.
“Yeah,” Jensen took a deep breath, “I do.”
“So what am I supposed to do? Just keep pretending that I don’t know about these things and work the case like it’s a person killing these girls? They’ll never get the justice they deserve. The thing that killed them will still be out there able to kill more people.”
“Whoever killed them won’t get away with it Jared. Sooner or later the rest of the vampires will be clued into what’s going on if they haven’t already and they’ll be searching too. Once the killer is found, they’ll be killed.”
Jared snapped his fingers, “Just like that? Dead.”
“Their entire world is at risk because of this. If people found out vampires or the things people had nightmares about existed what do you think will happen, Jared?” Jensen leaned back in his chair.
“It just,” Jared rubbed his hands over his face, “I’m stuck right in the middle of both worlds. I know just enough that I could do something but I’m helpless because I’m a human.”
“I’d rather be human than supernatural,” Jensen murmured and ignored the curious look that Jared sent across the table.
“So I just go to work and keep acting like everything is like usual.”
“It’s all you can do.”
“Oh hell,” Jared stood up, “Speaking of work I’m going to be late. I need to get going.”
~*~
“Do I want to know what you were up to last night?” Chris gave Jared a sly grin as he rested his hip against the edge of Jared’s desk.
“What?” Jared’s head shot up, paranoia leeching through his skin.
“Dude,” Chris held up his hands, “You’re wearing the same outfit as yesterday. Was just messing with you, that’s all.”
“Well, I wasn’t doing what you were thinking,” Jared rubbed his eyes and had to hide the inappropriate grin that was threatening to break through. Unless his partner was dreaming about him and vampire, he wasn’t doing anything near what Chris was thinking.
“Don’t tell me you pulled an all nighter on the case, man,” Chris smacked Jared on the arm. “We need to be sharp, to stay on top of this. We don’t need to lose the momentum we have because someone’s too tired to stay focused.”
Jared shook his head as he stood up, “Thanks man, just what I needed for my already shitty day.”
“Jay,” Chris called out as Jared wound his way through the bull pen and towards the break room. “God damnit.”
The voice in Jared’s mind echoed Chris’s sentiment. Damn it all to whatever hell it belonged to. He scrubbed his hands through his hair in frustration. He was at a complete loss as what to do or how he should go about doing it. Whatever the hell it was. And what was he supposed to do about Jensen now? The specialist who was supposed to be only consulting was pretty much going to be working the case by his lonesome if the way he was speaking this morning meant anything. Fuck it. He had a specialist he needed to talk to.
~*~
“What’s up boss?” Katie chirped from her desk. She was currently reclining as much as she could in the leather chair with her feet propped up in front of her. Jensen smacked her feet off the desk and stomped towards his office. “Well who pissed in your Cheerio’s? Please tell me it’s not Detective tall dark and sexy?”
“The idiot followed me to Misha’s! And then he has the nerve not to freak out like I thought he would after I told him about what’s really going on in the world. Instead he just gets pissy, or I don’t know. He was more frustrated that he can’t really do anything about vampires killing people.” Jensen kicked at his desk before spinning around to face Katie.
She stood staring at Jensen with her mouth open, “You told him?”
“Fuck,” Jensen groaned. “And he just accepted it all.”
“So what’s the plan now?” Katie flopped down in one of the chairs across his desk and started to organize the loose papers in front of her. “You going to work together or what’s the deal?”
“I don’t know,” Jensen grimaced.
“Well you kind of forgot an important piece of explaining everything didn’t you?”
“You think I don’t know that?” Jensen snapped at her before taking a deep breath, “Sorry.”
“It’s cool,” Katie shrugged, “Just you’re still a consultant on the case. What ever you find out legally has to be reported in some way to him. And he can’t just drop you as a consultant a few days after hiring you on. It’ll look bad on him and on you. You’re both wrapped up in this case and until people stop getting murdered you’re stuck with each other.”
Part Four