While Dean's driving so far away, stalling with time. He pulled over to the gasoline station in the middle of nowhere. Sam was focused on his palm pilot while Karina was counting the strings of her hair, bored. She wanted to get out with a mission now.
"All right. I figure we'd hit Tucumcari by lunch, then head south, hit Bisbee by midnight." Dean looked at Sam whose focus was on the palm pilot, not responding to him. "Sam wears women's underwear."
Karina laughed softly and Sam replied to Dean, "I'm listening, I'm just busy."
Karina comes to the front and sees what Sam was doing, since she's bored out of her mind, "With what, Sam?"
"Reading emails."
Dean got out of the car and started to fill the tank with gas. "Emails from who?"
"From my friends at Stanford."
"You're kidding. You still keep in touch with your college buddies?"
"Why not?"
"Well, what exactly did you tell them? You know, about where you've been, what you've been doing?"
"I tell them I'm on a road trip with my big brother. I told them I needed some time off after Jess."
"Well, so you lie to them."
Sam defended, "No. I just don't tell them... Everything."
Karina looked at Sam, "I'm sorry to tell you this, but that is the definition of lying. I get it, and so does Dean. It just reacts worse when you tell them the truth."
Sam asked Karina, "What am I supposed to do? Just cut everybody out of my life?" Karina went silent and Sam looked at Dean who shrugged him. "You're serious?"
"Look, it sucks. But in a job like that, you can't get close to people."
Sam looked down at his PalmPilot, and Karina looked at Dean, "Is it just me or you're really antisocial?"
"Yeah, whatever. You're too, by the way."
"At least, I'm giving... more than you."
Sam got a beep from his palm pilot and he reacted to what he read. Karina and Dean looked over what he was reacting to. Sam explained to them, "This email from this girl Rebecca Warren, one of those friends of mine."
Dean asked, "Is she hot?" Karina glared at him, and Sam continued.
"I went to school with her and her brother, Zach. She says Zach's been charged with murder. He had been arrested for killing his girlfriend. Rebecca said that he didn't do it, but it sounds like the cops have a pretty good case."
"Dude, what kind of people are you hanging out with?"
Sam looked at Dean, "No, man. I know Zach. He's no killer."
"Well, maybe you know Zach, as well as he, knows you."
"They're in St. Louis. We're going."
Karina smiled, "Yay! Something to do!"
Dean chuckled, "Hold up, hold up. Look, I'm sorry about your buddy, ok? But it does not sound like our problem."
"It is our problem. They're my friends."
"St. Louis is 400 miles behind us, Sam." Sam gave Dean a look, and Karina looked between them.
Karina pointed out, "You did drag Sam away from Stanford, so he should have a chance to meet up with his friends. Right?" Dean gave a moment to think, but he gave in with Sam's face and Karina's point. He drove to St. Louis.
When they all arrived in St. Louis, they went to Rebecca's house. Karina looked at the view of her house, it was a mansion. She appreciated the digs. Sam rang the doorbell, and it revealed a blonde, petite woman. "Oh my God, Sam."
"Well, if it isn't little Becky."
"You know what you can do with that "Little Becky" crap."
Sam smiled a little and hugged her. He pulled her away, "I got your email."
"I didn't think that you would come here."
Dean walked over to her and offered his hand, "Dean--older brother."
"Hi." She shook his hand, and she noticed a woman behind them, "And you are?"
"Karina. Friend of Sam and Dean's."
Rebecca smiled at them, and asked, "What are you guys doing here?
Sam answered, "We're here to help. Whatever we can do." Rebecca let them come in, and Karina closed the door behind her. As they all looked inside, Sam commented, "Nice place."
"It was my parents. I was crashing here for the long weekend when everything happened. I decided to take the semester off. I'm gonna stay until Zach's free."
Karina asked Rebecca, "Where are your parents?"
"They live in Paris for half a year, so they're on their way home now for the trial. Do you guys want a beer or something?"
Karina shook her head, and Dean smiled until Sam stopped him, "No thanks. So... tell us what happened."
"Well, um, Zach had come home, and he found Emily tied to a chair. And she was beaten up and bloody, and so he..." Her voice started to crack and her eyes were watering, "He called 911. And the police showed up, and...and they arrested him. But the thing is, the only way that Zach could have killed Emily is if he was in two places at the same time.'
That last line caught Karina's attention, she's predicting what could it be, but she needs more clues. Winchesters looked at each other, while Rebecca continued, "The police. They have a video. It's from the security tape from across the street and it shows Zach coming home at 10:30. Now, Emily was killed just after that, but I swear he was with me, having a few beers until at least after midnight."
Sam offered, "You know, maybe we could see the crime scene--Zach's house."
"We could?"
Rebecca asked them, "Why? What could you do?"
"Well, me and Karina, not much. But Dean's a cop."
Dean nervously chuckled, and Rebecca looked at Dean with hopeful eyes, "A detective, actually."
"Really? Where?"
"Bisbee, Arizona. But I'm off duty now."
"You guys, it's so nice to offer, but I just-- I don't know."
"Beck, look. I know Zach didn't do this. Now, we have to find a way to prove that he's innocent."
"Okay. I'm gonna get the keys." She left the room and Dean whistled.
Dean turned to Sam, "Oh yeah, man. You're a real straight shooter with your friends."
"Look, Zach and Becky need our help."
"I just don't think this is our kind of problem."
Karina looked at Dean with raised eyebrows. "Then how do you explain two places at once? Trust me, Dean. It is. Besides I was bored out of my skull with no missions so..."
Dean said nothing and was defeated. He walked out of the room. Sam and Karina followed him, Karina looked up at Sam, "So... I do nothing?"
Sam chuckled, "Yeah, sorry. Just don't want to put you in jeopardy."
"But you were all right with your brother..." They both smiled a little, "Hey, I hope you know that. I'm really not that antisocial. Like Dean said, it's really hard to be friends while you're doing this kind of job."
"I understand. I mean... I am your friend, right? Not just a case from my dad."
Karina hesitated and looked down at the floor as she walked. She looked up at Sam, "Yeah, sure. You'll be my friend/partner. Dean is... I really don't know what he is."
"Nobody does..." Sam looked down on Karina and grinned softly at her. "Thanks. Knowing that I have a friend. Since I was gone from my life."
"No problem. Just keep it between us."
"Yeah."
***
When they all pulled up in front of Zach's house, they all including Rebeca walked up to the house. Where the murder was provided. As the rest of the trio entered the house, the scenery of the room was bloody. Everywhere the shed blood of a victim. Walls, floor, each picture frame.
Sam noticed that Rebecca was hesitating on the porch steps, "Beck, you want to wait outside?"
She shook her head, "No. I want to help." She ducks under the caution tape and enters the house.
Karina was examining the picture frames on the wall, while she listened to the conversation between Sam and Rebecca. "Tell us what happened."
"Well... there was no sign of a break-in. They say that Emily let her attacker in and the lawyers are already talking about a plea bargain." Rebecca looked around the room, and began crying from the view she was seeing.
"Look, Beck, if Zach didn't do this, it means someone else did. Any idea who?"
"Um, there was something about a week before, somebody broke in here and stole some clothes. Zach's clothes and the police didn't think it was anything. I mean, we're not that far from downtown. I mean, sometimes people get robbed."
Karina squinted her eyes, thinking about what she said. She began to walk farther, into the kitchen. She looked at the picture of Sam on the refrigerator's door. He looked happy with Zach and Rebecca.
She can hear Sam walking up to her, she didn't take her eyes off the picture, "How is she?"
"She's broken."
"I bet. You seemed really happy there. I wonder what that would feel like..."
Sam furrowed his eyebrows at Karina, and she was still looking at the picture. Almost examining it. Trying to feel something. It was hollow. "You want me to be completely honest? I never felt like I belonged here."
Karina looked at Sam, confused, "But I thought it was your dream to become a lawyer."
"It is, but... somehow I didn't."
Sam stopped talking the moment when Dean walked up to them, "So the neighbor's dog went psycho right around the time Zach's girlfriend was killed."
Sam turned to Dean, "Animals can have a sharp sense of the paranormal."
"Maybe Fido saw something."
Karina put her hand on her hip, and looked at Dean, "Well, Dean, you still think it's not our problem?"
"Yes, I still think it is. But we should look at the security tape just to make sure."
Karina fakely smiled at him, "Yeah, you do that."
"Yeah."
Rebecca walked to them and Dean asked, "So the tape-- the security footage? Think maybe your lawyers could get their hands on it? I kind of don't have that jurisdiction."
"I've already got it." Sam and Karina were surprised, "I didn't want to say something in front of the cop. I, um, I stole it off the lawyer's desk. I just had to see to myself."
"Amen, girl..."
Rebecca smiled at Karina's comment, and she walked by her. They all left the room, leaving Sam to look at the picture one more time. Before he followed them. Then he started to do some thinking about what Karina said to him. Wondering what happiness feels like again. He's wondering too.
When they all went to Rebecca's house at night, they were watching the security tape. Then Rebecca pointed out where Zach was after 10:00, coming over to Emily's house. The time of the murder. Dean noticed the time stamp was a little later than what she said. "Our lawyers hired some kind of video expert. He said the tape was authentic."
Meanwhile, in another camera, Zach looked at the camera quickly. Sam and Karina noticed something. Sam asked Rebecca, "Hey Beck, can we take those beers now?"
"Oh, sure." She started to leave until Sam stopped her again for one more thing. Sandwiches. She commented back to him as she left the kitchen, "What do you think this is, hooters?"
Dean muttered, "I wish." He walked over to Sam and Karina, "What is it?"
Sam pointed out, "Check this out." He rewinds the tape and replays it. The frame that caught them showed Zach's eyes shimmering as it walked away. His eyes are silver. He paused the tape to give them a better look.
"Maybe it just was camera flare."
"That's not like any camera flare I've ever seen. You know, a lot of cultures believe that a photograph can catch a glimpse of the soul."
"Yeah."
"Remember that dog freaking out? Maybe he saw this thing. Maybe this is some kind of dark double of Zach's-- something that looks like him but isn't him."
Karina softly grinned, she already knew what it was. She decided to go along with it, "Like a doppelganger."
"That would sure explain how he was in two places at once."
***
The next morning, Karina is holding her laughter down to pretend like she doesn't know anything. She was bored out of her mind in the last few weeks, why not have a little fun with the Winchesters. While she was in the back, sharpening her knives. Or in another word, silver knives.
Dean parked in an alleyway, where another bloody break-in happened last night (that they did not know until later). They all got out of the car, while Dean was holding his coffee. "All right. What are we doing here at 5:30 in the morning?"
"I realized something. The videotape shows the killer going in, but not coming out."
Karina asked Sam, "So he came out of the back door?"
"Right, so there should be a trail to follow-- a trail the police would never pursue."
"Cause they think the killer never left. They caught your friend, Zach, inside." Dean sat on the front of his car and muttered himself. "Still don't know why we're here at 5:30 in the morning."
Karina rolled her eyes and helped Sam, she noticed blood on the telephone pole. She warned Sam, he followed her and saw what she was seeing. Dean noticed the blood.
"Blood. Maybe Sam's right, someone might have come this way."
"Maybe the trail ends. I don't see anything over here."
Karina crossed her arms and glared at Dean, "It's because you're sitting on your ass and doing nothing, but whining." Dean lifted up his cup to her, and fake smiled at her. Karina shook her head, and she looked at the end of the alleyway.
At the opposite end of the alleyway, the ambulance pulled out a siren and drove by the trio, and stopped at the end of the street. They all shared the suspension look at each other, and they all followed the ambulance. When they all reached the end of the street, they observed a scene of an arrest of a man.
After they got a little information from a woman who knew the man. The man almost tried to kill his wife, and she also informed them that he wasn't the kind of person who would be the killer.
Sam was looking around at the side of the house, while Karina and Dean were getting information about what happened last night. When Karina caught Sam's attention, Dean asked him, "Remember when I said this wasn't our kind of problem?"
"Yeah."
"Definitely our kind of problem."
"What do you guys find out?"
Dean replied to Sam, "We talked to the patrolman who was first on the scene. He heard this guy Alex's story. Apparently, the dude was driving home from a business trip when his wife was attacked."
"He was in two places at once."
Karina replied, "Yep. He saw himself in the house. Now the police think he's crazy."
"Two dark doubles attacking loved ones in exactly the same way."
"Well, let me ask you a smart question, Sam. What would go to change itself to the double of the innocent? And can do the same thing?"
"Shapeshifter?" Karina nodded, "Something can make itself look like anyone?"
Karina informed the Winchesters, "Every culture in the world has a shapeshifter lore, hence the legends of creatures who can transform themselves into animals or other people."
Sam pointed out, "Right, skinwalkers. Werewolves."
Dean said, "We have two attacks within blocks of each other. Karina and I are guessing we got a shapeshifter problem in the neighborhood."
"Let me ask you this. In all of this shapeshifter lore, can any of them fly?"
Karina answered, "No, I don't think so. Why?"
"I picked up a trail here. Someone ran out of the back of this building, headed back this way."
Dean pointed out, "Just like your friend's house."
"Yeah. And just like at Zach's house the trail suddenly ends. Whatever it is, it just disappeared."
Karina and Dean examine around to see anything and Dean comes up with a thought. Down. As they all looked down on the ground, there was a manhole. They all climbed down into the manhole, and they all looked around.
"I bet this is run by Zach's house too. The shapeshifter could be using the sewer system to get around."
Sam walked over to Karina and Dean. Dean caught something, "I think you're right. Look at this." It was a pile of blood, and skin on the ground. Sam made a disgusted sound as Karina made a disgusted face. She never liked seeing those, everywhere.
Sam asked them, "Is this from his victims?" Dean lifts up some slimy skin and holds it up to show them a better look.
"Boys, I have a weird thought. Maybe when the shapeshifter changes, it shed some skin."
"That is sick."
"Sorry."
After examining the remains of the shapeshifter, they climbed up out of the manhole and walked back to the car. Dean opened the trunk of weapons, "Well, one thing I learned from Dad-- no matter what kind of shapeshifter it is, there's one sure way to kill it."
Dean grabbed the silver bullets. Sam finished his thoughts, "Silver bullet to the heart."
"That's right."
Sam got a phone call, he walked away from Karina and Dean. Karina turned to Dean, "You know that a silver bullet is not the only way to kill them. There are silver knives, and silver daggers. Pretty much anything silver."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, sometimes things happen, you gotta take chances, not pining over the bullets and guns."
Dean stood up and looked at Karina, "Look, I'm sure you're a nice woman and all, and you have rare knowledge of different lores, and monsters. Sometimes we have to do things my way. Ok?"
"You're aware this is not the 1800s, right? Women can do what women do, and does not just mean taking men's orders."
Dean pursues his lips in guilt, taking the defense from the huntress again. They overheard Sam's argument with Rebecca, they both already knew what was going on. Sam sighed in the guilt of losing Rebecca. Because of a lie. They both walked to Sam, who was looking in the distance.
"I hate to say it, but that's exactly what I'm talking about. You lie to your friends, because if they knew the real you they'd be freaked. It's just-- it'd be easier if--"
Sam looked at Dean, "If I was like you."
"Hey, man, like it or not, we are not like other people. But I'll tell you one thing-- this whole gig..." Dean handed him the gun, "It ain't without perks." Sam sighed, and took the gun from him, put it back in his jeans, and walked away.
Karina guarded with her weapons of choice, not taking on Dean's words. Silver blades.
When they all went down into the manhole again, they all went into the sewers. Holding their flashlights, guarded with their weapons. Water drippings echo from the surface. They walked miles and miles, with a musty smell, and dark waters popping up.
When they all turned to Sam's left, he held up his gun and walked over to the end. Dean flashes the light on the skin, "I think we're close to its lair."
"Why do you say that?"
"'Cause there's another puke-inducing pile of skin next to your face."
Sam turned and saw the pile of skin beside him. "Oh, god..."
Karina flashed her light on another pile of skin further to them. "It looks like it's lived here for a while."
"Who knows how many murders he's gotten away with?" Sam turned and saw the shapeshifter. It was the same man before that day. Sam warned Dean who was standing beside him. He punches Dean, and he falls to the ground.
Karina threw her knife at the shapeshifter, it left a deep gash cut on his right neck. It screamed in pain, as it steamed from sliver. It ran out, and Sam shot a few times on it. He missed.
Karina went over to Dean and asked, "Are you okay?"
Dean was holding his left shoulder as Karina lifted him up to stand. He groaned in pain, "Yeah... Get that son of a bitch!" They all ran away and followed the shapeshifter. As expected, the shapeshifter came out of the manhole and escaped to the distance outside.
Sam and Karina climbed out first, and they all looked around to see the sight of it. It was gone. Dean climbed out of the manhole, holding his wounded shoulder. Sam looked around, "All right. Let's split up."
Dean suggested, "All right, I'll meet you guys on the other side."
"Be there at five."
They went in their own separate ways. Sam went to the left, Dean went to the center, and Karina went to the right. They all were hiding their weapons, running to find the shifter. Dean looked at the alleys. Sam looked at the sidewalks of the town. Karina looked around on the streets, where the crowded people confused her.
For a short while, Sam waited for them under a stop walking light. He heard a voice who was behind him, it was Dean. "Hey. Anything?"
"No. He's gone. Where's Karina?"
"She sent me a text. She's back in the car. Let's go to her now." As Sam crosses the street, he doesn't notice that Dean's eyes are different. His eyes reflected the light from a passing car, his eyes glowed silver.