Song Remains the Same

Chapter 142: Every Rose Has Its Thorn

"No other love in the world is like the love a father has for his little girl."
– Unknown

Tilton, New Hampshire

Before today, the humble two-story house had been just one among many others nestled in a quaint row on a quiet lane in a small town.

Now, 17 Chestnut Street was a smoking ruins standing broken in the morning light.

Across the street beside a sleek black Impala, two dismayed onlookers stood closely to each other, gone still in stunned horror at the scene they'd just arrived upon.

The once soft blue house was now a mostly featureless mass of scorched siding and partial walls plus a half-collapsed roof. The structure was still choked by fetid rising smoke from flames that had been extinguished recently. Yellow-and-black crime scene tape surrounded the property—making it clear that foul play was suspected—and beyond that border the place crawled with EMS, firefighters, police, a news crew, concerned neighbors... and one other very distressing thing.

Eyes on the van that bore the ominous label COUNTY CORONER, Dean was uncharacteristically aghast, barely able to summon his voice at all. "Are... are you sure this is the right address?" Those were his first words since getting out of his car almost a full thirty seconds ago.

Beside him with a face gone white like a sheet, Jamie's alarmed eyes were locked onto the same vehicle. She attempted to speak, but was barely audible. "Y-yeah."

The two hunters stood in front of the house that their daughter's adoptive parents had called home. The house where baby Rose lived—the daughter whose existence Dean hadn't even confirmed as real until less than twenty four hours ago when Cas raised Jamie out of her coma.

A frantic scan of the area revealed no parent figures protectively clutching a baby girl, no EMS reviving anyone, and no indications of anyone having survived the fire. Only signs of the worst case scenario. And Dean couldn't accept that. His riotous mind was coming up with every possible scenario that didn't end with the baby girl he'd never even laid eyes on dying in a fire.

"M-maybe they moved," he reasoned desperately, mind barely able to comprehend what he was seeing. "M-maybe they weren't inside when it happened."

But they both knew the Coroner wouldn't be present without confirmed fatalities on scene.

A very rattled Jamie abruptly darted across the street without a word, leaving a distressed Dean to rush after. She hadn't even checked the road, and didn't seem to notice the screech of a motorist suddenly braking to avoid running her over, nor did she turn at Dean's angry bark at the driver. She just charged sightlessly over to the small crowd clustered around the house without a plan, grabbing onto the first person she came to—who happened to be a paramedic. "Please, what happened to the people who lived here?" she asked in a flustered, worried rush. Jamie looked petrified to the point of being sick. "D-did they find the baby?"

Dean arrived at her side, his anxiety shooting into orbit as he waited breathlessly for answers to the questions. The paramedic hesitated and gave both distressed hunters a brief once-over. "I'm sorry ma'am, I really don't know any of those details, and they're still securing the scene," the paramedic apologized, clearly knowing more than what they were letting on to. But they turned their attention to a communication that came across their handheld radio, and that was that.

A few steps off, a civilian onlooker who was probably a neighbor leaned in briefly, seeing the looks on Dean and Jamie's faces. "I've heard 'em saying they think all three was killed in the fire," the lady shared quietly with a gaunt face, shaking her head in defeat. "Guess they don't wanna cause a scene or say nothing before it's official. Such a shame." Beside the woman, her wife put an arm around her and pulled her away soothingly, speaking calming words and leaving the two hunters absolutely aghast.