family ties, supernatural [ 1 ]

005. anti-kids

Dean, Tabitha, and Griffin are sitting at the counter in the diner, Dean circling obituaries.

"Can I get you anything else?" The waitress, Wendy, asks Dean. He looks up, grinning around the pen he's chewing on.

"Just the check, please." Sam sits between Dean and Tabitha.

"Okay." Wendy walks away.

"You know, Sam, we are allowed to have fun once in a while." Dean says before pointing at Wendy who is walking away. "That's fun." Sam looks at him. "Here, take a look at this." Dean gives Sam the newspaper. "I think I got one."

"Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin. Last week, Sophie Carlton, eighteen, walks into the lake, doesn't walk out. Authorities dragged the water -- nothing. Sophie Carlton is the third Lake Manitoc drowning this year. None of the other bodies were found either. They had a funeral two days ago."

"A funeral?" Sam asks.

"Yeah, it's weird, they buried an empty coffin. For, uh, closure or whatever." Dean says.

"Closure? What closure? People don't just disappear, Dean. Other people just stop looking for them." Sam snips.

"Sam, something you want to say to me?" Dean asks.

"The trail for dad. It's getting colder every day." Sam says.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Griffin questions.

"Fuck off." Dean tells him. "Exactly. So what are we supposed to do?" He asks Sam.

"I don't know. Something. Anything." Sam says.

"You know what? I'm sick of this attitude. You don't think I wanna find dad as much as you do?" Dean asks.

"I know you do, Dean, it's just--"

"I'm the one that's been with him every single day for the past few years, while you've been off to college, going to pep rallies."

"I've been studying and raising teenagers." Sam sneers.

"Teenagers you kidnapped." Dean says.

"I didn't kidnap them. I got them out of a traumatizing, shitty life." Sam hisses.

"As you drag us back into that life." Griffin remarks.

"Shut up." Sam tells him.

"We will find dad, but until then, we're gonna kill everything bad between here and there. Okay?" Dean says. Sam rolls his eyes while Dean gets distracted by Wendy as she walks by.

"All right, Lake Manitoc." Sam says. "Hey!" He gets Dean's attention. "How far?"

+++

They knock on the door to the Carlton house, Will Carlton answering it.

"Will Carlton?" Dean asks.

"Yeah, that's right." He nods.

"I'm Agent Ford. This is Agent Hamill. We're with the US Wildlife Service. Kids are here for a school project." Dean holds his badge up.

"She was about 100 yards out." Will states. "That's where she got dragged down."

"And you're sure she didn't drown?" Dean asks.

"Yeah. She was a varsity swimmer." Will says. "She practically grew up in that lake. She was as safe out there as in her own bathtub."

"So no splashing? No signs of distress?" Sam asks.

"No, that's what I'm telling you." Will says.

"Did you see any shadows in the water? Maybe some dark shape breach the surface?" Sam asks.