World So Cold

23. Simon Said

Ash was sitting at a table with his laptop open, looking at the hand-drawn sketch of the bus logo from Sam's vision. Sat sat across from him while Dean and Laurey stood behind.

"Well, I got a match," Ash said. "It's the logo from the Blue Ridge bus lines in Guthrie, Oklahoma."

"Okay," Sam replied. "Do me a favor - check Guthrie for any demonic signs, or omens, or anything like that."

"You think the demon's there?"

"Yeah, maybe."

"Why would you think that?"

"Just check it, all right?" Dean and Laurey told Ash.

Ash gave them a look and the trio frowned at each other. "No, sir, Miss, nothing. No demon."

"All right, try something else for me. Search Guthrie for a house fire," Sam suggested. "It would be 1983, fire's origin would be a baby's nursery, night of the kid's six month birthday."

Ash looked at him, startled, and Dean and Laurey looked around to check for eavesdroppers. Jo, who was cleaning a nearby table, was watching them.

"Okay, now that is just weird, man. Why the hell would I be looking for that."

Sam pulled out a beer bottle and set it next to the laptop. "'Cause there's PBR in it for ya."

"Give me 15 minutes."

Jo pressed a few buttons on the jukebox and the opening chords to REO Speedwagon's Can't Fight This Feeling played. Dean sat at the bar with a horrified expression on his face. Jo carried a tray to the bar and set it down, catching his eye. A solemn smile crossed Laurey's face and she blinked back tears.

Jonathan cuddled into his mother and smiled.

"REO Speedwagon?" Dean questioned.

"Damn right, REO. Kevin Cronin sings it from the heart," Jo replied.

"He sings it from the hair. There's a difference."

"That profile you've got Ash looking for?"

"Hmm."

"Your mom died in the same way, didn't she? A fire in Sam's nursery?"

"Look, Jo, it's kind of a family thing."

"I could help."

"I'm sure you could. But we've got to handle this one ourselves. Besides, if I ran off with you, I think your mother might kill me."

Ellen, who was cleaning glasses behind the bar, looked at him and he smiled nervously.

"You're afraid of my mother?" Jo questioned.

"I think so." He noticed Laurey's expression. "Laur? Is everything okay?"

Laurey choked back a sob. "It's great. Uh, Sam's headed over."

Sam hurried up behind Jo and said, "We have a match. We've gotta go."

"All right, Jo," Dean stated. "See you later."

---

They got into the Impala and Dean sang along to Can't Fight This Feeling.

"You're kidding, right?" Sam said.

"I heard the song somewhere, I can't get it out of my head, I don't know, man," Dean replied. "Whaddya got?"

"It was playing in the bar," Laurey stated, ignoring Dean's look of both annoyance, then concern.

"Shut up. Sam?"

Sam looked through a stack of papers. "Andrew Gallagher. Born in '83, like me. Lost his mother in a nursery fire exactly six months later."