Silent Lucidity

LXVII

[There's No Place Like Home]

Inside a house, a man screamed. "Aah!"

The man ran down the stairs while crashes followed him. He ran outside to the back of the house as he said to Charlie, "Please... I-I don't know anything else."

"I know," Charlie said. "I'm gonna torture you anyway. 'Cause who doesn't love a little torture?"

BUNKER

Sam was sitting at the table talking on the phone. "All right, well, just -- just keep me posted, okay? Yeah, you got it. Wait, Cas. You there? Hey, thanks. Yeah." Sam hung up the phone as Dean threw down an omelette in front of Sam, and one in front of Kennedy's spot. "You made egg-whites?"

"Yeah. Breakfast of Champions -- you know, if you're a dork like you."

Kennedy appeared with messy hair and bacon in hand as Sam said, "And you slept past 7:00. Hey, Kennedy."

"Yeah, well, until we get answers on this Mark of Cain, I am on a 12-step problem not to backslide."

"12 steps?" Kennedy asked groggily.

"Yeah. Hey, if Cain found a way to live with it after going dark side, then I just got to find a way to keep it in check, so haven't had a drink in a week, eight hours of rack time every night, and... now this masterpiece."

"That's three steps," Sam noted.

"Shut up and eat."

Sam took a bite of the omelette. "Wow. That's -- that's awesome."

Kennedy ate hers and frowned. "I'm making something else."

"It's crap," Dean said. "Ugh. God. Soon as we get rid of this demonic tramp stamp, I am back on the booze, burgers, and... more booze. Tell us you got something."

Later, the three were doing research in the library. Dean gave Sam a green smoothie, took one sip, then pushed it away. Sam was watching something on his laptop.

"What the hell?" Sam frowned.

"Cain or Crowley?" Dean and Kennedy questioned.

Sam looked up at them. "Charlie."

"Is she back from Oz?" Dean wondered. "She didn't call?"

"Yeah, um... She's been pretty busy."

"What the hell are we looking at?"

Sam glanced at Dean. "So, you know, I was looking into the news, checking for anything weird, right? I found this story about a torture vic. Apparently, some kid videotaped this at his next-door neighbor's house."

Kennedy frowned. "What are you saying, Charlie tortured someone?"

"Uh..."

"Our Charlie?" Dean said. "Yea high, wouldn't hurt a Hobbit, practically sparkles?" Dean pulled out his phone and dialed a number. "Come on, Charlie, pick up."

"The guy she went all Jack Bauer on -- uh, Peter Harper."

Dean hung up. "She's not answering."

"District attorney in Topeka. According to this article, he wasn't the only person in town that was hit. Uh, a court stenographer was assaulted the night before."

"Well, you know, Charlie would go off on someone without a reason."

Still looking at the screen, Sam said, "Yeah, I wouldn't think so either, but look at the video."

"Oh, we're looking at it. But you know what we do, taken out of context, it doesn't look that much different. She could be hunting." Sam sighed. "Why don't we go talk to this asshat and see what's going on."