"Yeah you probably missed something." Dean complained.
My eyes started to blink open to the sound of my brothers bickering.
"Dude, I ran LexisNexis local police reports, newspapers, couldn't find a single red flag." Sam explained.
"Shush your bickering." I whined pulling Dean's jacket over my eyes to sheild the light.
"Are you sure you got the coordinates right?" Sam asked completely ignoring my presence.
"Yeah, I double checked, it's Fitchburg, Wisconsin, dad wouldn't have sent us coordinates, if it wasn't important Sammy."
"Well, I'm telling you I looked and all I could find as a big steamy pile of nothing, if dad's sending us hunting for something, I don't know what."
"Well, maybe he's gonna meet us there." Dean thought on the bright side. I knew for a fact he wasn't going to be within 200 miles of the place he was sending us, and no, I haven't gotten to talk to him, thanks for asking.
"Yeah, cause he's been so easy to find up to this point." Sam sassed.
I laid my head back on the seat and sighed.
"You're a real smartass, you know that, don't worry, I'm sure there's something in Fitchburg worth killing." Dean stated.
"Yeah, what makes you so sure?" Sam asked.
"Because I'm the oldest, which means I'm always right."
I busted out into laughter.
"Dean, always right, as if!" I said dying of laughter.
"Shut up." He commanded as he turned and smacked my knee.
I leaned up and smacked the side of his head. He turned back around with one hand on the wheel and hit my arm. Then we started having a slapping battle.
"Guys, Dean, Dean!" Sam yelled grabbing a hold of the wheel.
Dean eventually turned back around, but he still gave me the stink eye through the rearview mirror he always had pointed at me. I smiled a devilish smile back at him.
My brothers leaned against the Impala as I was walking back across the street with free coffee. Let's just say the barista was a boy.
I handed both the boys their coffees as I took a sip of mine and spoke.
"Well the cute barista thinks that the local freemasons are up to something sneaky, but other than that, nobody's heard about anything weird going on."
I was about to start walking to the back seat of the Impala when Sammy spoke up.
"Sweetpea, you got the time?"
I quickly pulled out my phone.
"Um, 10 after 4:00." I responded.
"Why?" Dean questioned as we both stared at Sam.
"What's wrong with this picture?" He asked us.
I glanced over at a completely empty playground. If it was 4:10, shouldn't this place be crawling with kids?
"School's out, isn't it?" Dean asked us.
"Yeah." I answered.
This isn't good.
"So where is everybody?" Sam questioned.
"This place should be crawling with kids right now." I whispered.
Dean walked over to one woman who was at the playground alone with her daughter to see if he could get some insight.
So apparently kids were getting sick. Everywhere.
We walked into the hospital all dressed up.
"Dude, dude, I'm not using this I.D." Sam muttered.
"Why not?" Dean asked.
"Because it says, bikini inspector on it."
I giggled as Dean smiled down at me.
"Don't worry, she won't look that close." I reassured knowing damn well she was gonna, "inspect" that thing.
"Hell, she won't even ask to see it." Dean added.
"It's all about confidence Sammy." Right as I said that, Dean turned him around so he was facing the front desk.
"Can I see some I.D?" I heard the receptionist ask Sam.
Dean and I stifled a laugh as Sam gave us a bitch face.
After showing his I.D, he walked over to us but immediately lost the fake smile.
"See, told you it would work." Dean whispered with a smile as I giggled.
"Follow me, it's upstairs." Sam groaned in a low voice as Dean and I did what we were told.
We were walking down this long hallway when I sensed Dean stop. I turned around to see him peering into a room.
"What is it- oh." I cut myself off as I peered into the room as well. There was this old lady sitting in a wheel chair, staring into the corner of a wall.
I glanced over to see an upside down cross hanging right next to her. She slowly started turning her head to stare at Dean and I.
"That's fucking scary, what the fuck, fuck this shit." I cussed.
I quickly grabbed Dean's hand and dragged him back to Sam. Yes I kill everyday monsters, but what the fuck was wrong with that lady.
"Thanks for seeing us Dr. Hydaker." Dean thanked as we followed the doctor.
"Oh, I'm glad you guys are here, I was just about to call the CDC myself, how'd you find out anyway?"
"Oh some, G.P.- I forgot his name, he called Atlanta and must have beat you to the punch."
"So you say you got six cases so far?" Sam asked him as we continued to follow.
Something didn't feel right to me, like my magic was trying to tell me something.
"Yeah, in five weeks, at first we thought it was bacterial pneumonia, not that newsworthy, but now..."
"Now what?" I eased.
"The kids aren't responding to antibiotics, their white-cell counts keep going down, their immune systems just aren't doing their job, it's like their bodies are wearing out."
I wished I had the power to heal. I was supposed to be almighty and very powerful, but I couldn't heal people, then what was it worth?
"Excuse me, Dr. Hydaker." A nurse came up and gave the doctor a clipboard.
"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" I asked him.
"Never this severe."
"The way it spreads, that's a new one for me." The nurse spoke up, retrieving the clipboard again.
"What do you mean?"
"It works it's way through families, but only the children, one sibling after another."
"You mind if we interview a few of the kids?" Dean asked.
"They're not conscious."
"None of them?" Sam questioned shocked.
"No."
"Can we talk to the parents?" I shrugged having no other option.
"If you think it'll help." The doctor shrugged as well.
"Yeah, yeah, who was your most recent admission?"
"I should get back to my girls."
"Yes sir, we understand that and we really appreciate you talking to us, now you say Mary's the oldest?" I asked the grieving father.
"13." He nodded.
"Okay and she came down with it first, right, and then-?"
"Bethany the next night."
"Within 24 hours?"
"I guess, look I already went through all this with the doctor." He sighed.
"Right, just a few more questions if you don't mind." Dean stated from my side.
"How do you think they caught pneumonia, were they out in the cold, anything like that?" Dean asked.
"No, we think it was an open window." The father admitted.
"Both times?"
"The first time, I don't really remember, but the second time for sure, and I know I closed it before I put Bethany to bed."
"So you think she opened it?" Sam asked.
"It's a second story window, no ledge, no one else could have."
I glanced between both my brothers.
We were walking back down the hallway when Sammy spoke up.
"You know this might not be anything supernatural, it might just be pneumonia."
"Maybe, or maybe something opened that window." I responded.
"I don't know man, look, dad sent us down here for a reason, I think we might be barking up the right tree." Dean added.
"I'll tell you one thing." Sam whispered.
"What?" I questioned.
"That guy we just talked to, I'm betting it'll be a while before he goes home."
I looked at Sam with a smirk.
We found the guys house and were currently scrimmaging around inside of it. Sam was going around with his black light. I was walking around with my magic trying to feel if there was something we couldn't see or touch with our actual hands. Dean was looking around with his EMF.
"You got anything there?" Sam asked as he turned off the blacklight.
"No, nothing." Dean answered.
"Yeah me neither."
"Babe?" Both boys asked in unison as they looked over at me.
I was staring at the window my magic had just gone over. I removed the magic from the place I saw the handprint and it was still there, meaning we didn't need my magic to see it. I quickly retracted it as my brothers walked over to me.
"Dean was right, it's not pneumonia."
They both peered out the window to see the handprint I had found.
"It's rotted." Sam noted as the three of is stared at it.
Dean looked at it, and I could just tell something was going through his head. I wanted so bad to reach up and touch it so I could hear and see what he was thinking, but I figured he probably wouldn't like that.
"What the hell leaves a handprint like that?" Sam asked.
"I know why dad sent us here." Dean admitted as he stood up from leaning against the window.
Sam and I both stayed silent as Dean continued talking.
"He's faced this thing before, he wants us to finish the job."
Dean pulled up to a motel. The three of us exited the car and walked towards the trunk.
"So what the hell is a shtriga?" Sam asked Dean.
"It's kind of like a witch, I think, I don't know much about them." Dean stated.
"Well I've never heard of them." I admitted as Dean unlocked the trunk.
"And it's not in dad's journal." Sam added.
"Dad hunted one, in Fort Douglas, Wisconsin, about 16, 17 years ago, you were there, you don't remember, Babe was tiny."
"No." Sam replied.
"I guess he caught wind that things in Fitchburg now and kicked us the coordinates."
"So wait this-" Sam started.
"Shtriga." Dean finished.
"Right, you think it's the same one dad hunted before?"
This isn't right, I could feel it. Dean wasn't telling us something, he wasn't telling me something, and that's not how this works.
"Yeah maybe."
"If dad went after it, why is it still breathing air?" Sam questioned Dean as he closed the trunk.
"Because it got away."
"Got away?"
"Yeah Sammy, it happens."
"Not very often."
"Look, I don't know what to tell you."
Dean quickly glanced down at me but averted his eyes when he saw me glaring. I was trying to read his mind, his face, I know he is lying, and he knows, I know, he is lying.
"Maybe dad didn't have his wheaties that morning." Dean sassed.
"What else do you remember?"
"Nothing, I was a kid all right?"
Dean waked into the motel as I glanced up at Sam.
I leaned against the Impala with him, waiting for Dean to come back out. Sam pulled me closer to him and kissed the top of my head.
You know, the boys have John searching for there mom's killer, why shouldn't I be searching for my parents killer? I would hate to leave my brothers, but it's killing me, I have to know.
My thoughts were cut off by Dean opening the door with three keys in his hand.
Sam had just left the motel room for, I don't know what, but this was my shot.
"Tell me." I commanded Dean. He looked up from the book he was reading and over at me.
"Tell me what you've been thinking, I can read you like an open book Dean Winchester."
"I'm not hiding anything Harley Winchester."
"Fine."
I walked up to Dean and raised an eyebrow. He sighed and pushed his head towards my hands. That was my okay to do what I was about to do.
I reached my hands up and touched each side of his head, then I saw everything.
Dean stared down at a picture of the same rotten handprint we had just seen, but this wasn't Dean, at least not the Dean I knew now. He looked so young here.
"All right." A younger version of John walked out of the motel bedroom cocking his shotgun.
"You know the drill Dean, if anyone calls, you don't pick up, if it's me, I'll ring once and then call back again, you got that?"
"Mm-hmm, don't answer the phone unless it rings once first."
I always hated how John treated my boys. My brothers.
"Come on dude, look alive, this stuff's important."
"I know, it's just, we've done it like a million times, and you know I'm not stupid."
Young Dean followed around John who was still packing for the hunt.
"I know your not, but it only takes one mistake, you got that?"
Dean nodded.
It was weird seeing my older brother like this.
"All right, if I'm not back sunday night-"
But Dean cut dad off.
"Call Pastor Jim."
"Lock the doors and windows, close the shades, and most important-"
"Watch out for Sammy and Harley." Dean finished.
My heart hurt seeing this. Screw John for never being here.
Dean looked back at Sam who was holding a small baby, or toddler, me. I honestly don't know how old I was here.
"I know." Dean nodded.
"All right, if something tries to bust in-" John asked.
"Shoot first, ask questions later." Dean finished yet again. John trained Dean down to the bone, and I hated it.
"That's my man." John praised.
Dean closed and locked the motel door as John left. He then looked back at Sam and I and smiled.
Suddenly time changed to Dean pouring some milk into a cup for Sam. It was like Dean had forgotten what was in between. He glanced over at baby me playing with blocks on the floor.
"When's dad gonna get back?" Young Sam had asked sitting at the kitchen table.
"Tomorrow." Dean answered as he got a pot and poured some food into Sam's bowl. He then yanked a chair as close as it would get to Sam, picked me up, and sat baby me down on the chair.
"Hold her, make sure she doesn't fall." Sam grabbed my arm and smiled at me as I smiled back.
Dean grabbed a small bowl and poured the rest of the food in there.
"But when?" Sam had continued his questions from before.
"I don't know, he usually comes in late though, now eat your dinner."
"I'm sick of Scabetti-os." Sam complained.
Dean lifted me up and scooped a spoonful of food in my mouth.
"You don't hear Harley complaining do you, and you're the one who wanted them."
Baby me giggled as Dean held me to his hip.
"I want lucky charms." Sam stated.
"There's no more lucky charms."
Everything Dean did for us, and I didn't remember a thing.
"I saw the box!" Sam declared.
"Okay, maybe there is, but there's only enough left for one bowl, and I haven't had any yet." Dean said on the verge of shouting.
Baby me started to tear up a little bit.
"Oh, no, no, Babe, it's okay." He said as he rocked me.
Dean's been calling me that since I was a baby.
He placed me in Sam's arms, got a brand new bowl out and the lucky charms box, and placed them in front of Sammy. He then took baby me into his arms again and gave me another spoonful of food.
Oh Dean. He had nothing. It was odd watching this from the outside looking in.
Sam stuck his hand out and held the prize out to Dean.
"Do you want the prize?"
Time skipped again and suddenly Dean was glancing back at Sam and I who were fast asleep. He opened the motel door, and left us. He locked the door back up and walked over to the arcade.
"Hey kid, we're closing up." A guy told Dean after a few minutes or hours of being there.
Young Dean headed towards the exit and back to the motel room. He got is keys out and opened the door, only to see mine and Sam's light on and to hear low whispering.
He slowly creeped closer and opened the door a bit more to see baby me with tears running down my face, in the arms of the shtriga and to see that same shtriga hovering over Sam.
Dean slowly picked up the shotgun and was about to shoot when John busted through the door.
"Move out of the way!" Dean quickly dove to the side of the door frame.
John shot a round into the monster as it dropped me. Thankfully I landed on the bed next to Sam.
Then the shtriga dove out the window and ran off.
"Sammy, Harley, are you okay?"
John got onto the bed and picked me up in one arm and Sammy in the other. Baby me dug my face into his neck as he held me tightly.
"Dad what's going on?" Sam asked as he looked over at me in John's arms.
"Is Harley okay?" Sam asked as he touched my back.
"Are you both okay?" John asked again as he kissed the back of my head.
"What happened?" He asked as Dean slowly walked into the room.
"I just went out." Young Dean admitted.
"What?"
"Just for a second, I'm sorry."
"I told you not to leave this room, I told you not to let them out of your sight."