"That's a cut!"
Katherine shakes her head from beside Dean. "I still can't believe you and Sam left me on set yesterday."
"You were busy." Dean shrugs, picking a taquito up.
"So Frank Jaffe was a hoax," she says. "A paid actor."
"Mhm. So did that guy really kill himself?"
Katherine shrugs, planting her hands on her hips as her eyes stay trained on set. "Looked like it," she murmurs.
"Why would a ghost be afraid of salt?" Tara scoffs. Katherine snorts, glancing down at the script.
"Oh, if only you knew," she hums. Dean offers her a taquito, which she quickly accepts.
"Marty, what do you think?" One of the producers, McG, asks, leaning against the wood wall of the set.
"Not married to salt," Marty replies. "What do you want? We still sticking with condiments?"
"Mmm...it just sounds different. Not better. What else would a ghost be scared of?"
"Maybe shotguns," Marty calls out.
"That makes even less sense than the salt," McG replies. Katherine smirks.
"These people are idiots," a fellow P.A. mutters, stalking past Katherine and Dean.
"Maybe paprika! Or spicy picante."
"Walter's a little testy for a P.A., huh?" Katherine hums, then smiles at Sam as he rounds the table.
"How's it going in here?" Sam asks, and Dean and Katherine glance to each other.
Aside from the awkward silence? "Really good," Dean says. "Tara has really stepped up her performance, and I think it's from all the sense-memory stuff."
"Sense-memory?" Sam questions.
"Yeah."
Sam sighs. "Dean, you know when I ask about how it's going here, I'm talking about the case, right?"
"Nothing new," Katherine says. "Did you get into the morgue?"
"Yeah," Sam says. "Brad's a doornail, no question."
"Hmm," Katherine nods. "Come with me. Wanna show you somethin'." She starts forward, waving the brothers forward with two of her fingers, and leads them to a sound guy she's become acquainted with. He's one of the lesser snobs she's encountered. "Hey, Dave?" He smiles at her, which she returns, and Dean picks up on a bit of the lethality of it. It sends a tingle up his spine, one of pride. Go on. "Can you play that thing you were playing earlier?"
"Sure," he says, handing a headset over, and Katherine passes it to Sam first. Dave scrubs through the clip and hits play.
It doesn't matter, one of the actors says. Katherine knows the voice is Mitch's, she's listened to it so many times. We're not leaving until we find Wendy and her sister. Right on cue, Sam's brow wrinkles. He's hearing the distortions. Then Dean has a listen, and the three are on their way.
"EVP," Sam hums.
"From last night," Katherine nods. "Dean and I swept the place for EMF and it's like it's just comin' out of nowhere. It's a legit haunting now."
"Well whose ghost?" Sam questions. "And what does it want?"
"No idea," she says. "But maybe we should take a look at Brad's death scene."
Katherine leads the other two to his vacant trailer and pops the DVD into the player. "Where did you get that?" Sam asks.
"They're called 'dailies.' I got it from Cindy—she's got this thing goin' with Drew, and he got me an extra copy."
"You sure seem comfortable here," Sam hums.
Katherine shrugs a bit, hitting 'play' on the remote. "So this is where Douchebag In A Suit fell through the roof."
"Look at you," Dean hums. "Made it big time," he says, watching as Katherine's figure sweeps into the frame and cuts Brad down. And then there's a strange blur in the corner of the frame.
"Wait, wait, wait," Sam says.
"You saw that too?" Katherine asks, hitting the rewind button on the remote. Then she pauses it right as the strange blue mist pops up.
There's a figure in the corner, likely a woman, with a white dress. Can't see her face very well, but there's something off about the coloring of the picture.
"It's like "Three Men And a Baby" all over again," Dean says.
"Okay," Katherine sighs, shaking her head, and decides to ignore the reference she doesn't understand.
"Wha—Selleck, Danson, and Guttenberg," he says. "And I don't know who played the baby."
"What's your point?" Sam and Katherine chorus.
"Well, there's a scene in the movie where people say there was a ghost caught on film," Dean explains. "Apparently, in the background in one of the scenes, there was this boy that nobody remembers. Spirit photography?"
Sam frowns and leans closer to the TV. "I've seen her before," he murmurs.
Katherine jumps as someone hollers her name in her headset. "Yeah, I'm comin',' she grumbles, rising to her feet. "C'mon."
Sam hits the books as Dean and Katherine run around set. Then everyone's breaking for lunch.
"I got you a plate," Katherine says with a smile, dropping a styrofoam box in front of him. "Chow mein and mushroom chicken."
"Thanks," he says. "Hey, guess what I found?"
"No, I don't have a 20 on Tara," Dean says. Both of the other hunters look to him with raised brows. "I think she's 10-100. Okay, copy that."
"Dude, it's lunch," Katherine says, nudging his arm, and looks back to Sam.
"Elise Drummond," he says, sliding an article across the table towards Dean and Katherine. "She was a starlet back in the 30s." A few set members walk behind Sam, and the hunters stare after them, waiting until the coast is clear. "Had an affair with a studio exec. He uses her up, fires her, leaves her destitute, so Elise hangs herself from studio 9's rafters, right into a scene they're shooting."
"Just like Brad," Dean hums. "So what, you think she's got it in for the studio brass?"
"It's a motive," Katherine says with a shrug. "And Brad's death matches hers exactly."
Dean lets out a heavy sigh, shoulders rounding in realization. "We're digging tonight, aren't we?"
"I'll man the flashlight," Katherine chirps, flipping the top of her box open. "Or...woman...the flashlight." Sam rolls his eyes. She's grinning. "Come on. That was—"
"That wasn't anywhere close to decent," he deadpans. Katherine's smile falls, and her eyes are throwing knives at him.
With a parting note of "Six AM call for crew tomorrow!" The hunters left the stage and to the site of Elise Drummond's burial.
Katherine smiles, leaning against the big oak tree about ten feet away from the grave, and points her flashlight at them. "Atta boys," she encouraged. "Oh, look at the muscles! So big an' stwong."
"We've gotta dig up Johnny Ramone's grave while we're out here," Dean pants.
"You wanna dig him up, too?" Katherine asks with a frown, tossing a halved peanut into her mouth.
"Bite your tongue, heathen!"
"Hey," she calls after a moment, and thumbs another peanut half into her mouth. "You know what I can't figure out?"
"Why Elise goes homicidal after 75 years?" Sam asks.
She snaps her fingers. "Exactly."
"Maybe she's mad they're making a scary ghost flick," Dean suggests with a shrug.
"Is it really that scary?" She starts pacing as she watches the brothers work. Heel toe, heel toe, heel toe...it's a silent mantra, a mental game as she steps over bumpy patches of grass and weaves a circle around Elise Drummond's disturbed grave.
"Can you hold still?" Dean requests. Katherine empties her lungs, shifts her weight, and shines the floodlight down onto the ground.
It takes hours, delayed for lack of the third shovel, but finally, Dean hits something hard.
He pulls himself out of the grave with a grunt, and Katherine has to make a conscious effort to ignore it. As she dumps salt over the bones, Sam goes at it with the lighter fluid, and then Dean drops the match.
They let it burn for a few minutes, then snuff it out with the dirt. Once it's all said and done, it's around three AM, and they head to the nearest open joint for food. They get a few hours of shut-eye, grab a shower, and head back to set, where there's another working crime scene.
Dean comes to a stop beside Katherine, who is already looking up at a light reflector.
"Run-in with a giant fan," she says staring unaffected at the blood and soft tissue sprayed up onto it.
"Something happened to the electrician back in '66," Sam says. "A guy named Billy Beard."
"What the hell," Dean mutters.
"It doesn't seem like Elise this time," Katherine remarks, turning away from the scene.
"Well we already torched her," Dean says. "Are we dealing with any other ghosts?"
"Maybe, but they don't usually tag team," she points out.
"Everybody!" McG's voice is easy to recognize. "Gather 'round for a minute, okay?" Katherine sighs, coming to a standstill as everyone on the crew gathers in the parking lot. "In light of Jay's accident last night, and in cooperation with the authorities, we're shutting down production for a few days." A few people groan, and everyone starts whispering amongst themselves. "I know, I know—look, I'm not gonna lie to you, we've had a few setbacks this week, but we all know what Jay and Brad wanted more than anything, and that was to see Hell Hazers II: The Reckoning on screens all across America! Now, we owe it to them to go on and to pull together and make this damn movie, huh?" He starts clapping with everyone else, nodding as choruses of "yes!" are exuded. "But—but not today! Go home. Someone will call you."
"I'll do some digging," Katherine begins. "You guys go watch yesterday's daily, see if there's anything weird on camera."
"I'll go with you," Dean volunteers. After a moment, Katherine nods, and the two start away from Sam.
It's a silent ride to the local courthouse. She's even quiet as she leans against the desk as Dean works his charm on the poor receptionist when he asks to see the death records.
"You okay?" He asks. Katherine looks up from the bin and nods, quickly going back to her work.
"Are you?" She returns, more like an afterthought, and she wasn't looking at him.
Everything within him seemed to beg her to look at him again. Just a glance.
"I'm fine. Just wondering why you've been so quiet."
Katherine bites the inside of her cheek, plucking a file from the bin, and sits down. "Just thinking," she answers.
"What did your boss say, when you left?"
She glances to Dean. "That I'd always have something waiting for me in Haley."
"What'd you tell him?"
"That I wanted to be with my family," she answers with a shrug.
Dean taps his knuckles against the table, giving a few moments of pause as he thinks about what to say next...he doesn't like to kiss ass—unless it's hers, of course. Maybe she needs a little buttering up...
"Katherine, I know you sacrificed a lot to come back with us," he murmurs. Slowly, she lifts her eyes from the first death certificate of July of 1966. "You had a good life in Florida. So...thanks for sticking around. And I know you're probably gonna hit me in the face and say, 'I didn't belong,' but...it takes a lot for someone to give up a home. Someone who...loves them." Dean shrugs. "So I'm sorry if I wasn't very welcoming."
After a moment, Katherine leans back in her chair, appraising him. Everything in his body sings with her attention. "I wasn't expecting that," she hums. "Um...thanks, Dean. I appreciate it." He nods and looks back to his files. Katherine quickly flips through hers, looking for 'Billy Beard.' "So what did you and Sam do all those months without me to save your ass?" She asks. Dean smiles. "Did you actually have fun?"
"We always have fun," Dean protests.
Katherine chuckles. "Yeah, we do. Remember that day we buried Sam in the snow in Colorado?" Dean grins, leaning back in his chair as he nods. "Or the look on your face when you ate that toothpaste Oreo?"
"I still haven't forgiven you for that," he grumbles, shaking his head.
"Yeah, well, you put baby powder in that hairdryer with the intention of getting me, only you got Sam."
"It didn't actually get you, though, so technically, your assault on me was unwarranted and demanded retaliation."
Katherine shrugs. "I fired my warning shot. It worked, didn't it?" Dean rolls his eyes. "Hey, I think I found something," she hums. "It's not Billy Beard, but Robert. He died in a fan accident on stage 9 the summer of '66," she says, brows furrowed.
"What?" Dean asks.
"He was cremated." She shuts her file, stows it back in the box, and she and Dean are on their way back to set to explain the predicament to Sam.
The giant rubs his face and sits up with a sigh after the news is delivered. "Now what?" He asks.
"No idea," Katherine sighs.
"Any more ghost cameos in the dailies?" Dean asks.
"Not in the first six hours," Sam tiredly hums. "Maybe the spirits are trying to shut down the movie 'cause they think it sucks." Katherine lets out a short, breathy laugh. "'Cause, I mean, it kind of does."
Katherine turns her attention to Tara's character as she reads an incantation onscreen. Then, with a frown, she reaches forward, snags the remote, and rewinds the footage. Dean glances from her to the screen.
"Listen to the invocation," she instructs. Dean notices she doesn't use the word 'incantation,' which is a clue. "Guys, that's real."
"Real what?" Dean asks.
"A necromantic summoning ritual," Sam says.
Dean frowns at the two. "You know it just by listening? Geeks."
Katherine rolls her eyes, moving to her feet. "We need to go talk to Marty, see what the hell that's doing in the script." She's the first out of the trailer, and the two brothers follow.
At the offices, Jay's name is being scraped off of the door. That didn't take long at all.
"Guys, we're all shut down," he says. "What are you still doing here?"
"Yeah, uh...sorry," Katherine chuckles, stepping ahead of the brothers. "We couldn't help ourselves." Dean rolls his eyes, watching Marty's expression go a bit slack. "We just, uh, had to tell you that we read the script."
"Yeah?" He asks with a grin.
"It was awesome," she breathily says, jamming her hands into her jeans pockets.
"Pretty rockin', right?" He laughs. "I'm glad you liked it!"
"I really appreciated the attention to detail."
"Oh, that is so me! I mean, color me guilty, but that is me. I am a total detail buff."
"Yeah, no—I mean, the way you worked in all of those Enochian summoning rituals—" Katherine shakes her head. "The authentic language?"
Marty frowns a bit. "What, you mean that Latin crap? Nah, that's Walter Dixon, the original writer."
"Oh," she quietly says, rocking onto her toes.
"The P.A., Walter?" Dean asks.
"No, he's not a P.A.," Marty says, glancing to Katherine. "He's got a clause in his contract that allows him to come on set."
"But he wrote the invocations?"
"He wrote a wackjob screenplay. There's no pace, there's no love interest. It's all wackadoo exposition! I had to cut, like 90% of it to make it readable, another 10% to make it good."
"Could I look at it?" Katherine requests.
"Yeah, I guess," Martin scoffs, moving to his filing cabinet.
"What a Class-A douche," she hums once they've left the offices. They hunker down in the trailer to do more dailies reviewing, and Katherine goes over the script.
"Verdict?" Dean asks, pushing a plate of food her way. She doesn't even look up, simply grabs a nacho and tosses it into her mouth.
"It's actually pretty good," she says. "But it's like a manual on conjuration. I mean, this is all real stuff." She shakes her head, glancing to the nachos. "Dear God, where did you find this?"
"Right?" He chuckles. "Some hole in the wall down the street. Pretty good, huh?"
"Better than Abuela next door," Katherine hums. Dean's brow quirks. "Sorry. She's my and Soph's neighbor in Haley. She'd always invite us to the family functions, let us take home some of her food. We just called her 'Abuela.'"
"Okay," Sam reroutes. "So let's say somewhere down the line, Walter learned from pretty heavy magic."
"Yeah," Katherine says. "And he's pissed that these people wrecked his movie."
"Motive and means," Dean adds with a shrug. "Let's pay Walter a visit."
"Can it wait 'til after the nachos?"
The hunters arrived in the nick of time—Martin was about to be thrown into the fan, and there was a ghost—and Walter.
"You're one hell of a P.A." He breathes.
Katherine purses her lips at him. "Yeah, I know," she says, carefully pulling him up with her good arm as Dean and Sam go after Walter. Martin glances to the shotgun in her left hand.
"You're...not a P.A., are you?"
"Nope." She grips the shotgun by the pump, cocks it, and moves after Dean and Sam.
"Raising these spirits from the dead?" Sam calls up the running writer. Katherine watches as he scrambles up the stairs. "Making them murder for you? That's playing with fire, Walter!"
"You don't understand," the writer says, hurrying up the stairs.
"You're right—I don't understand."
"You put your heart and soul into something," Walter says, leaning over the side. "Years of hard work—years. And then they take it! And they shit all over it! And then they want you to smile and say 'thank you.'"
"Walter, listen," Sam calls. "It's just a movie—that's it." Walter huffs, turning his head to the side.
"Look," he says. "I got nothin' against you, man. You're not part of this. Just, please—please leave. But Martin's gotta stay."
"Sorry, no can do," Dean calls up to the writer.
"It's not that we like him or anything," Katherine adds, shaking her head, and Marty gawks at her profile. She shrugs. "Matter of principle."
"Then I'm sorry, too," Walter says. He lifts his fist, a strange object dangling from a threat, and Katherine squints at it.
"Walter, don't," Sam says. Then Walter begins speaking in Latin. The entire stage begins to tremble, echoes of disembodied voices bounce around, and the fan kicks on.
"KD!" Dean shouts. Once he sees his shotgun pointed at her, she grabs Martin and yanks him down. Dean fires his round of rock salt and she pops back up, looking off to the right as three ghosts start towards them. Knowing the reach of her rounds, she and Dean wait. "Come on," he beckons. "Come on."
And then they disappear.
Sam is launched across the set foliage, and Katherine runs after him. She winds an arm under his and pulls him up to height. "Come on!" She shouts, and Martin runs after Dean. Walter is forgotten. The four hurry off set, through the staged woods, and around the stage. Appliances spark and flicker, and Dean pulls her out of the way as a light pops. They take refuge in the cabin, and Sam presses himself up against the door.
"Come to the coast," Dean hums. "We'll get together, have a few laughs—"
"Dean," Katherine hisses, shaking her head. "Now isn't the time." He frowns, and she points to the open back of the cabin.
"Oh, man," he sighs.
"I can't believe this," Martin whispers. "Ghosts aren't even real."
"What makes you say that?"
Martin doesn't answer. Katherine and Dean face the back of the cabin, arms twitching, ready to shoot. It's too quiet.
"I don't understand," Martin murmurs. "How is Walter controlling them?"
"Probably that talisman," Sam says after a moment. Katherine nods in agreement and shifts her feet anxiously.
"Where are the bastards?" She asks.
Sam pulls his phone from his pocket. "What are you doing?" Martin questions.
"Well, if film cameras pick these suckers up, then maybe..." Sam points the camera on the back of his phone towards the open face of the cabin. "Kat, right there!" He points just before her. She barely aims and then squeezes the trigger. "Got 'em." There's a few moments of silence. "Right there!" Dean shoots to the left. At the sound of footsteps, Katherine looks up. Walter sprints across the rafters above the cabin. "Here," Sam says, handing his phone to Martin. "Get the idea?"
"Yeah—"
"You hold them off, I'm going after Walter."
"I'm coming with you," Katherine says. Dean nods, and Katherine jogs after Sam.
She goes outside, Sam follows Walter directly, and they have him cornered outside stage 9.
"It's over, Walter," she says. "So give us the talisman." He throws it onto the ground, snapping the wood, and Katherine's eyes blow wide.
"There," he says. "Now no one can have it."
"I wouldn't have done that," Sam and Katherine choke out.
"Yeah? Why not?"
"Because you just freed them!" Katherine snaps, and Dean and Martin burst through the stage door. "We can't stop them now."
"Walter, you brought them back," Sam says. "Forced them to murder. They're not gonna be very happy with you."
"Yeah?" Walter asks, backing away from Katherine. He cries out and crumples to the ground, disembodied shrieking masking his cries of pain. His back is bloodied. Dean and Katherine stand down, because if they get in the way, it'll only piss the spirits off more.
Vengeful spirits' agendas really do put a damper on a hunter's ability to control situations.
They make themselves scarce for the next few days, and once production starts back up again, they drop by to make sure everything's functioning as it should.
Martin wrote the cellphone trick into the script.
"You find out there's an afterlife, and this is what you do with it," Katherine mutters. Dean chuckles from beside her, his eyes trained on the monitors before him. "I don't know about you, but I need a beer."