FADED ▷ Sam Winchester [2]

28 | HURTS TO BE HUMAN

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"Thanks for coming by so quickly," the doctor says to us. "Ms. Foster gave us your number." The girl, Hayden, died last night.

"You have any idea what happened to her?" Dean questions.

"Autopsy's tomorrow, but it could be arterial embolism, cardiac arrest—"

"A heart attack at her age?" Sam asks.

"It gets weirder," the doctor admits. "When we admitted her, she had defensive wounds to her arms. Now, they're gone." He pulls the sheet down revealing the young girl's body. Her arms are clean.

The doctor's cell phone rings and he excused himself.

"Okay, what the hell?" Claire asks.

"You checked Hayden out," Dean says to Mick. "Did you notice anything weird?"

"No, but... the girl could've had internal injuries, or..."

"But somehow her external injuries are all healed? No way," Sam says. "This is almost like, uh..." he pauses a moment. "You know, what if she turned?"

"What, like 'wolfed out' turned?" Dean asks. Sam shrugs.

"Explains the whole 'wolverine healing factor' thing," Claire points out.

"Yeah, no, but that'd be crazy, because that means she would've been bit," Dean says. "And Mick here says that didn't happen. Right, Mick?"

"Uh... no," he stammers a little. "Not that I saw." There's that guilty look again.

"Are you a hundred percent?" Sam asks.

"Well, unless I made a mistake," Mick says.

"Hell of a mistake," Dean says, getting mad.

"Dean," Sam warns.

"No, I told you we shouldn't have dragged him along. I told you."

"Don't!" Claire snaps, shutting everyone up. "Whatever got Hayden is still out there."

"Okay," Dean says. "So, let's say the night of the attack, wolf ices big bro, chimps down on little sis, and then, poof, vanishes. Does that make any sense?"

No, not really.

"Maybe he let her go," Sam suggests.

"On purpose? Why?" Claire asks.

"Perhaps it didn't want her dead, it wanted her turned," Mick says.

"Right," Sam says. "Which means this wasn't random."

"Which means it would've been somebody who knew her. Friends, family," Dean says.

"Or someone from the bar," Claire says.

"Okay, all right, Sam, you, Claire, and Bailey, you go talk to the girl that she was supposed to be crashing with. And me and amateur hour will hit the bar, see what shakes loose," Dean instructs.

•••

"So, really, things are good?" Sam asks Claire later when the three of us are alone in her car. She's digging through the backseat, next to where I'm sitting.

"Yeah, they're awesome," Claire says.

"Really, you sure?" Sam notices a bunch of wrappers from to-go stuff.

"Dude, take the yes," Claire says. "Okay, so you two wait here."

"What?" Sam and I ask at the same time, confused.