My Home Is Always With You {10}

Chapter 4: "Paper Moon"

Liz, Dean, and Sam are at a lake and Liz and Dean are in the water, while Sam's sitting in a chair drinking beer. Liz has her arms wrapped around Dean's neck and Dean has his hands on settle on Liz's ass and he squeezes it with a smile and Liz smiles happy to see Dean smiling. Liz kisses Dean and Dean kisses back. Liz pulls away and says, "How you are doing?" Dean says, "Golden, babe." Liz arches a brow and Dean says, "Seriously, I'm good. I am. You know, I have you happily in my arms and I'm back home with my family. Taking some "we time." Best decision we ever made. How are you?" Liz sighs and says, "Okay. Just trying to move forward." Dean nods and says, "Yeah." Dean kisses Liz's cheek and he says, "See that thing in the paper this morning?" Liz says, "Yeah, I did. It's probably just an animal kill." Dean says, "It was three kills, and it was in the same town, all within the last month." Liz says, "Yeah, you're right. We should call some guys, have 'em fix it." Dean says, "Good. Smart." Liz says, "Great." Dean says, "Or... we could be in and out. It's a milk run." Liz says, "Right, because that happens never." Dean says, "Look, Liz, what we're doing here, it's good, okay? You, me, and Sam hanging out. But I need to work. I need this." Liz says, "If things go sideways... I mean, like, an inch, you have to give me the heads-up." Dean says, "Done. You got my word." Dean picks Liz up and carries her out the water and Liz already feels like this is a bad idea. Later, Liz, Dean, and Sam arrive at the sheriff station disguised in animal control uniforms and hold up their badges and the Sheriff says, "Gentlemen and lady. I'm not gonna lie. We're damn glad to see you. You guys must come up on stuff like this all the time." The three of them say, "Oh, yeah." Dean says, "Yeah, definitely." The Sheriff says, "Hell, seen raccoons in rec rooms and bears in swimming pools. But this? You tell me." The boys nod and Liz says, "Well, it could be a wolf." The boy's glance at Liz and the Sheriff says, "A wolf?" Liz nods and says, "Yes, sir. Especially in this neck of the woods, wolves tend to get rabid." The Sheriff nods and Sam says, "Maybe you could walk us through the attacks. Any similarities, anything weird." The Sheriff says, "Only thing weird about them was how similar they were. Folks torn clean through. Hearts absent." Dean says, "Hearts absent as in--" The Sheriff cuts Dean off and says, "Consumed, most likely." Dean nods and says, "And there were no witnesses?" The Sheriff says, "Well, the town square attack, the parking lot... those were really late. But the bar? Hell, with how jammed the place was, you'd think somebody other than Tommy would've seen something." Liz says, "And what did he see?" The Sheriff says, "Honestly, not much. Now Tommy ain't exactly what we call a reliable witness. And he's telling anybody who'll listen he saw some girl go out back with Barker, and she got torn up, too." Liz says, "So, there was a second victim?" The Sheriff says, "Well, sure... except Tommy's a drunk. There's no body, no D.N.A., no blood trail, no nothing to suggest that." A deputy walks up to the Sheriff, and he says, "Give me once sec." Sam says, "Yeah." The Sheriff walks away, and Dean says, "Hearts missing. Sounds wolfy to me, right?" Sam says, "Yeah. Pretty brazen, even for a werewolf." Dean says, "You guys thinking it was the girl?" Sam says, "Let's find out." Later, they meet Tommy in a bar to question him and he says, "Yeah, Barker and I have been raising hell, chasing tail, and riding for a long time. Part of him always knew when his clock ran out, it wasn't gonna be pretty. To go out like that? By some animal? Just ain't right." Liz says, "You mind telling us what went down?" Tommy says, "It was just another party, you know? Barker went out back. The next thing you know, everyone's yelling and screaming, and he's all torn up." Sam says, "Now the Sheriff mentioned you thought there might've been a girl involved. You think she was killed, too?" Tommy says, "Nope." Dean says, "So, there was no girl?" Tommy says, "Couldn't say." Sam leans forward and says, "You know we're not cops, right?" Tommy says, "A badge is a badge." Dean says, "Well, you should also know that working outdoors the way we do, we see some-- some pretty weird crap. Stuff that we can't explain. I mean, hell, half the stuff, we wouldn't have believed it ourselves had we not seen it together." Tommy says, "Well, you don't have to live in this town, mister. You don't have to deal with the ridicule." Dean says, "I'm just saying that crazy might not be half as crazy as you think." Tommy says, "So, if someone were to tell you they saw a ghost, you'd... believe that?" Dean says, "Just assume we believe everything." Tommy says, "Okay, then. The other night I was taking a ride past the old Sturges farm. You know, thinking about the rides me and Barker used to go on. I saw her, man." Sam says, "Saw her who?" Tommy says, "The girl." Liz says, "After the attack?" Tommy says, "Hell, yeah. She was just standing there, all bloody, watching me. So-- so I turned the hell around, I-I ran back, thinking, damn, you know, she-- she's hurt or something. But... she was just gone. Like, gone." Liz nods and says, "Like a ghost." Tommy nods and says, "No, I don't give one red cent in hell what the cops say. She was there. She was eaten. She's a freakin' ghost."