CARRY ON

Drowning

The two brothers sit searching in their motel room. Sam is working on his laptop. Dean is going through his clothing.
"So there's the three drowning victims this year." Sam said.
"Any before that?" Dean asked.
"Uh, yeah." Sam has a browser window open to The Lake Manitoc Tribune. "Six more spread out over the past thirty-five years. Those bodies were never recovered either." Sam said looking at his laptop. He looked at Dean. "If there is something out there, it's picking up its pace."
Dean tosses an item of clothing onto a bed.
"So, what, we got a lake monster on a binge?" Dean asked again.
"This whole lake monster theory, it, it just bugs me." Dean comes over to read over Sam's shoulder.
"Why?"
"Loch Ness, uh, Lake Champlain, there are literally hundreds of eyewitness accounts, but here, almost nothing." Sam looks at the Tribune homepage. "Whatever it is out there, no one's living to talk about it." Sam scrolls to the comments section of an article. Dean points at it.
"Wait, Barr, Christopher Barr. Where have I heard that name before?" Dean said. Sam reads from the page.
"Christopher Barr, the victim in May." Sam read. He clicks a link, opening a new page. A picture loads: it shows a police officer with Lucas. "Oh. Christopher Barr was Andrea's husband, Lucas's father. Apparently he took Lucas out swimming. Lucas was on a floating wooden platform when Chris drowned. Two hours before the kid got rescued." Sam said.
Sam clicks the picture for a better look, then scratches his head. "Maybe we have an eyewitness after all." Sam looked at Dean.
"No wonder that kid was so freaked out. Watching one of your parents die isn't something you just get over." Dean said.

Kids are laughing and playing at a park Andrea sits on a bench and watches Lucas, who is at another bench coloring and playing with toy soldiers.
"Can we join you?" Sam asked.Andrea looks up. Sam and Dean are there.
"I'm here with my son." She said. Dean looks over at Lucas.
"Oh. Mind if I say hi?" Dean asked.
Dean goes over to Lucas.
"Tell your friend this whole Jerry Maguire thing is not gonna work on me." Andrea laughs. Sam sits next to Andrea.
"I don't think that's what this is about." Sam said.

Dean approaches Lucas.
"How's it going?" Dean asked. Dean kneels down next to the bench where Lucas is coloring. When Lucas doesn't even look up, Dean picks up one of the toy soldiers.
"Oh, I used to love these things." Dean smiled. He imitates guns and explosions, then tosses the toy soldier down. "So crayons is more your thing? That's cool. Chicks dig artists." Dean smiled. Hopefully getting the boy to talk.

Lucas has a pile of drawings on the bench. Dean takes a look. The top one is of a big black swirl; the second one is of a red bicycle.
"Hey, these are pretty good. You mind if I sit and draw with you for a while?" He asked. Lucas doesn't answer.
Dean picks up a crayon.
"I'm not so bad myself." Dean sits on the bench, picks up a pad of paper, and starts drawing. "My friend, she can do some crazy things with a pencil." He smiled think of Joan.
"You know, I'm thinking you can hear me, you just don't want to talk. I don't know exactly what happened to your dad, but I know it was something real bad. I think I know how you feel. When I was your age, I saw something." He paused. "Anyway. Well, maybe you don't think anyone will listen to you, or, uh...or believe you. I want you to know that I will. You don't even have to say anything. You could draw me a picture about what you saw that day, with your dad, on the lake. Okay, no problem. This is for you." Dean holds out to Lucas the picture he drew. It's stick figures.
"This is my family." Dean points at each person in turn. "That's my dad. That's my mom. That's my geek brother, and that's me." He said.
"All right, so I'm a sucky artist. I'll see you around, Lucas." Dean heads back to Sam and Andrea. Lucas picks up the picture.
"Lucas hasn't said a word, not even to me. Not since his dad's accident." Andrea informed.
"Yeah, we heard. Sorry." Dean said.
Andrea nods.
"What are the doctors saying?" Sam asked.
"That it's a kind of post-traumatic stress." Andrea sighed.
"That can't be easy. For either of you." Dean shook his head.
"We moved in with my dad. He helps out a lot. It's just...when I think about what Lucas went through, what he saw..." A pause.
"Kids are strong. You'd be surprised what they can deal with." Dean said.
Lucas leaves the bench, heading for the group.
"You know, he used to have such life. He was hard to keep up with, to tell you the truth. Now he just sits there. Drawing those pictures, playing with those army men. I just wish..." Andrea spoke.  Lucas walks up, carrying a picture. "Hey sweetie." She smiled at her son. Lucas hands Dean the picture.
"Thanks. Thanks, Lucas." Dean said.
It's a picture of the Carlton house. Lucas heads back to the bench.

Dean is inside the motel room sitting on a bed. Sam opens the door and comes in.
"So, I think it's safe to say we can rule out Nessie." Sam said.
"What do you mean?" Dean asked.
Sam sits next to Dean.
"I just drove past the Carlton house. There was an ambulance there. Will Carlton is dead." Sam informed.
"He drowned?" Dean looked confused.
"Yep. In the sink." Sam sounded like he couldn't believe it.
"What the hell? So you're right, this isn't a creature. We're dealing with something else." Dean shook his head.  He grabbed his phone.
"Yeah, but what?" Sam asked.
"I don't know. Water wraith, maybe? Some kind of demon? I mean, something that controls water...water that comes from the same source." Dean explains.
"The source being the lake." Sam said.
"Yeah." Dean nodded.
"Which would explain why it's upping the body count. The lake is draining. It'll be dry in a few months. Whatever this thing is, whatever it wants, it's running out of time." Sam said.
Dean stands up.
"So it means it could go anywhere. This is gonna happen again soon."
Dean sits down on a chair.
"So where do we go from here?" Sam asked. Dean  looked at Sam as he put the phone to his ear.