Gas station...
Angel filled up the impala as she talked with Asa on her cell. Ramblin Man by the Allman Brothers plays as Sam, who is sitting shotgun, rifled through a box of Deans tapes.
"You sure you're okay, kitten? You left pretty fast the other night."
"Yeah, Ace. I'm fine." She eyed Dean as he came out of the convenience market carrying an arm full of junk food, "Just... in the middle of a little family reunion. We think my dads missing or in trouble or something so we picked up our little brother to help find him."
"Do you guys need more help?"
"No, we got it, don't worry. It's kind of a... family thing anyway."
"You thinkin it' s got somethin' to do with the thing that killed your mom?"
"Maybe. He's been hunting it, never stopped."
"Alright well if you need anything, to talk or a booty call..." He trailed off making her laugh, "Anything honey, call me."
"Yeah. You know I will. Bye Asa."
Angel smirked as she got off the phone. Throughout her years hunting she never really got along with other hunters. Her dad always had strict rules about them.
They were always trouble, no exception.
And as far as boyfriends went, she was never exclusive with anyone longer than her stay for a case. After meeting Asa though, that kind of changed. During a solo hunt she was on, she met Asa and was shocked to learn he knew her mother once upon a time. That's when she learned her mother used to be a hunter. She saved Asa when he was a kid.
She never told her brothers any of that information. Angel wanted them to keep the ideals they already had of her. Afterwards, any chance she got to hunt with him she really took it but kept him separated from her family at the same time. Dean and her father were protective to say the least. But Asa, Angel felt, could be a long time runner in her life.
Dean smirked as he walked closer to the impala and put all the junk food on the trunk, "That your boyfriend?"
"He's not my boyfriend." She glared and put the pump back on the stand, "And mind your own business."
"You know... we are your brothers. You can tell us."
"Right. Safe to say, I'm not jumping at the opportunity to lay out my personal sex life to my nosey little brothers. So drop it."
He made a face before calling to Sam, "Hey!" Sam leans out and looks at them, "You want breakfast?"
Sam looked over the junk, "No, thanks."
Angel shook her head and took the cupcake out of Dean's mouth, "This is not breakfast. This is diabetes."
"Do you ever stop bossing?"
She grinned and threw it in the trash before coming to sit in the back seat, "Once you two start listening i'll stop being bossy."
"Just like old times." Sam laughed and shook his head, "So how'd you pay for that stuff? You three still running credit card scams?"
Angel shrugged, "It's not like we get a paycheck to off ghosts and other supernatural crap."
Dean shrugged, "Besides, all we do is apply. It's not our fault they send us the cards."
Sam swings his legs back inside the car and closes the door, "Yeah? And what names did you write on the application this time?"
"Uh, Burt Aframian." Dean answered as he put his soda and chips down, "And his kids Hector..." He holds one out to Angel, "And Lena."
"Thanks." Angel took the card and slipped it in her bag then eyed Sam as he continued shuffling through the tapes, "You doin' alright over there, snoopy?"
"Yeah, it's just..." He motioned to the dozen cassettes in the box on his lap, "Dean, you've gotta update your cassette tape collection."
Dean eyed him, "Why?"
"Well, for one, they're cassette tapes. And two..." He holds up a tape for every band he names, "Black Sabbath? Motorhead? Metallica? It's the greatest hits of mullet rock."
"Metallica?" Angel leaned up to the front and took the tape from Sam, glaring at Dean, "This is mine, thief." She then looks down through the box and sees several other tapes of hers, she scoffs and grabs her favorite one, "Oh you are so dead. You did not take my Ramones tape. Did you really break into Trans Am and take all these? Really?"
Dean smirked saying nothing and Sam looked back at her, "You finished the Trans Am?"
"Yeah. Well me and Dean did together before he started thieving my crap." She grinned happily remembering the day that beautiful black 69 Pontiac firebird was up and running, "It only took forever but she's beautiful. Runs smooth. Only you know how your brother is when it comes to who's driving to and from the jobs."
"There's more room in here anyway." Dean rolls his eyes and takes the Metallica cassette, "And listen here, Sammy, I'm gonna teach you somethin'."
Angel rolls her eyes, "Oh, please."
"It's house rules." Dean pops the tape in the player, "Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole. That goes for the backseat driver back there too." He drops the Metallica box back in the box of tapes and starts the engine
Sam turned to him, "You know, Sammy is a chubby twelve-year-old. It's Sam, okay?"
Angel leaned up to the front and turned the music up.
She smiled at her little brother as Dean laughed, "Sorry, we can't hear you, the music's too loud."
Jericho 7...
The three of them drove past the town sign as Sam ended a call on his cell, "All right. There's no one matching Dad at the hospital or morgue, so that's something, I guess."
Dean glances over at Sam, then back at the road. At a bridge ahead of them, there are two police cars and several officers.
Dean motioned, "Check it out."
Angel looks up and Sam leans forward for a closer look. Dean pulls over and the three study the officers silently for a second before he turns off the engine. He opens the glove compartment and pulls out a box full of ID cards with his Angels and John's faces.
Dean quickly plucks a few out, tosses one to Angel and grins at Sam, "Let's go."
Sam bulked at them as they got out of the car, "We're gonna get arrested again, aren't we?"
"Probably." Angel shrugged, winking at him, "Price little brother, price. It's the job. Hope you remember how to pick your way out of cuffs."
On the bridge, the lead Deputy leans over the railing to yell down to two men in wetsuits who were poking around the river, "You guys find anything?"
"No!"
"Nothing!"
He turns back to the car in the middle of the bridge where another deputy was looking, "No sign of struggle, no footprints, no fingerprints. Spotless. It's almost too clean."
Angel and the boys walk into the crime scene like they belong there as the deputy questions another man.
"So, this kid Troy... He's dating your daughter, isn't he?"
"Yeah."
"How's Amy doing?"
"She's putting up missing posters downtown."
Dean sauntered up, "You fellas had another one like this just last month, didn't you?"
The Deputy looks up when Dean starts talking and immediately straightens, "And who are you?"
Dean flashes his badge followed by Angel, "Federal marshals."
The Deputy studied them, "You three are a little young for marshals, aren't you?"
Angel laughs charmingly, feigning flattery, "Thanks, that's awfully kind of you." She walked over to the car, the others following closely, "You did have another one just like this, correct?"
"Yeah, that's right. About a mile up the road. There've been others before that."
"So, this victim, you knew him?" Sam asked
He nods, "Town like this, everybody knows everybody."
Dean circles the car, looking around, "Any connection between the victims, besides that they're all men?"
"No. Not so far as we can tell."
Sam goes over to Dean, "So what's the theory?"
The deputy shrugged, "Honestly, we don't know. Serial murder? Kidnapping ring? Stumped."
Dean laughed sarcastically and Angel prepared herself for the comment she knew her brother was going to make, "Well, that is exactly the kind of crack police work I'd expect out of you guys."
Sam stomps on his foot and nods politely at their offended faces, "Thank you for your time." He starts to walk away and the two of them follow, "Gentlemen."
Angel glares at Dean, her voice dropping as they walk away, "What, Dad's gone for five minutes and you forgot how to act?"
He glared back at her before quickly smacking Sam on the head, "Ow! What was that for?"
He looked to him pointedly, "Why'd you have to step on my foot?"
"Why do you have to talk to the police like that?"
Angel took an annoyed breath and pinched them both on the back of the arm making them jerk away in pain, "Ow!"
"Angel!"
"Will you two stop acting like your six? Okay? We're working here. Come on."
Dean quickly moves in front of them, forcing them to stop walking, "Come on. They don't really know what's going on. We're all alone on this. I mean, if we're going to find Dad we've got to get to the bottom of this thing ourselves."
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean we won't need the local badges help you idiot." Angel's eyes drifted above Dean's shoulders when the Sheriff stopped next to them with two FBI agents, Dean turned at seeing Angel's forced smile, "Gentleman. Problem?"
The Sheriff regarded them, "You three need help?"
"No sir." Angel smiled brilliant and led her brothers past, "We were just leaving."
As they pass the FBI agents Dean nods at each of them, "Agent Mulder. Agent Scully."
Marquee Highland Movie Theater...
The three Winchesters watched as a young woman was tacking up posters with the victim, Troys, face on them.
Dean turned, "I'll bet you that's her."
Angel eyed him, "What gave you that idea?"
He glared but they walked up to the Young Woman, Dean smiling charmingly, "You must be Amy."
"Yeah..."
"Yeah, Troy told us about you." Angel nodded before making introductions, "Uh, I'm his Aunt Angel and these are my brothers. His uncle Dean and Sam."
She looked them over before walking away, "He never mentioned you to me."
"Well, that's Troy, I guess." Dean laughed, "We're not around much, we're up in Modesto."
Sam nodded, "So, we're looking for him too, and we're kinda asking around."
Another young woman comes up to Amy and puts a hand on her arm, "Hey, are you okay?"
"Yeah."
Angel made eye contact with Amy, "You mind if we ask you a couple questions? Your friend can come."
Amy looked at her friend before nodding and leading them to a booth for more privacy. The boys sat opposite Amy and her friend while Angel pulled up a chair next to the booth.
Amy looked to them, "I was on the phone with Troy. He was driving home. He said he would call me right back, and... he never did."
Sam asked, "He didn't say anything strange, or out of the ordinary?"
Amy shakes her head, "No. Nothing I can remember."
Sam's eye caught the pentagram in a circle pendant hanging around her neck and he studied it, "I like your necklace."
Her hand traced it, "Troy gave it to me. Mostly to scare my parents..." She laughs, "With all that devil stuff."
Sam laughs a little too, both of his siblings giving him a look of warning, "Actually, it means just the opposite. A pentagram is protection against evil. Really powerful." At Angel's eye he shifted, "I mean, if you believe in that kind of thing."
"Okay. Thank you, Unsolved Mysteries." Dean takes his arm off the back of Sam's seat and leans forward, "Here's the deal, ladies. The way Troy disappeared, something's not right. So if you've heard anything... "
When Amy and Rachel shared a tense look, Angel motioned between them, "Care to share?"
"Well, it's just..." Rachel started, "I mean, with all these guys going missing, people talk."
The Winchesters all speak in chorus, "What do they talk about?"
"It's kind of this local legend. This one girl? She got murdered out on Centennial, like decades ago." Dean looks to Angel knowingly as Sam watches Rachel attentively, nodding, "Well, supposedly she's still out there. She hitchhikes, and whoever picks her up? Well, they disappear forever."
Local library...
A web browser is open to the archive search page for the Jericho Herald. The words 'Female Murder Hitchhiking' are typed into the search box. Dean clicks GO and the screen tells him there are '(0) Results'. He glares and replaces 'Hitchhiking' with 'Centennial Highway', rolling his eyes when he gets the same response. Sam and Angel are sitting next to him, watching quietly.
Sam reached over, "Let me try."
Dean smacks his hand away, "I got it."
Angel rolled her eyes, "Just let him do it, D, or we're going to be researching until I'm 40."
"I'll be done before next week, relax." She glared at that as Sam quickly shoves Dean's chair out of the way and takes over, "Dude!" He hit him in the shoulder, "You're such a control freak."
Sam ignored him, "So angry spirits are born out of violent death, right?"
Dean sulked so Angel answered him, "Yeah."
"Well, maybe it's not murder."
He promptly replaces 'Murder' with 'Suicide' and finds an article entitled 'Suicide on Centennial'. Angel glanced at Dean, impressed as Sam opened the article that was dated April 25, 1981.
It read:
A local woman's drowning death was ruled a suicide, the county Sheriff's Department said earlier today. Constance Welch, 24, of 4636 Breckenridge Road, leapt off Sylvania Bridge, at mile 33 of Centennial Highway, and subsequently drowned last night. Deputy J. Pierce told reporters that, hours before her death, Ms. Welch logged a call with 911 emergency services. In a panicked tone, Ms. Welch described how she found her two young children, 5 and 6, in the bathtub, after leaving them alone for several [minutes]. She reported that their complex-[...]
"What happened to my children was a terrible accident. And it must have been too much for my wife. Our babies were gone, and Constance just couldn't bear it," said husband Joseph Welch. "Now I ask that you all please respect my privacy during this trying time."
At the time of the children's death and Ms. Welch's subsequent suicide, Mr. Welch was at the Frontier auto salvage yard, where he works the graveyard shift as associate manager.
"Connie might have been quiet, but she was the sweetest, most caring girl I ever knew," said Deanna Kripke, a neighbor. "She just doted on those children."
Sam pointed, "This was 1981. Constance Welch, twenty-four years old, jumps off Sylvania Bridge and drowns in the river."
Angel looked over his shoulder, "Does it say why she did it?"
"Yeah."
At his grim expression Dean pressed, "What?"
"An hour before they found her, she called 911. Apparently her two little kids are in the bathtub. She leaves them alone for a minute, and when she comes back, they aren't breathing. Both died."
Dean raises his eyebrows, "Hm."
Angel leaned forward studying the picture on the screen more closely, "Hey boys, that bridge look familiar to you?"
Sylvania Bridge...
Angel, Dean and Sam carefully walk along the bridge before stopping to lean on the railing to look down at the river.
Dean studied the water down below, "So this is where Constance took the swan dive."
Angel sighed, disappointed there wasn't anything useful in sight, "Apparently so."
Sam looked at them, "So... you think Dad would have been here?"
Dean nodded, "Well, he's chasing the same story and we're chasing him."
"Okay, so now what?"
"Now we keep digging until we find him." Angel turned to study him pointedly, "Which might take a minute."
"Well i told you guys i've only got until-"
"Monday. Right." Dean turned, "The interview. So you're really serious about this, aren't you? You think you're just going to become some lawyer?" He moved his hands around dramatically, "Marry your girl?"
"Maybe." At his look he motioned to Angel. "Ang, help me out here. Regardless about how things are now... you supported my Stanford move."
Angel's facial expression remained blank, something she's perfected all these years.
"Look, I'm glad you went to Stanford and... I'm even glad you managed to find the 'normal apple pie life' you've always wanted, little brother. But all of that doesn't change the facts and it certainly doesn't change your past." Her eyes pierced him in a challenge, "Does Jessica even know the truth about you? I'm talking about the real you, not the Stanford you. I mean, does she know about the things you've done?"
"Shes right." Dean added with a nod, "Have you told her about what's really lurking behind shadows?"
"No." Sam took a defensive step forward, "And she's not ever going to know."
Angel scoffed as she rolled her eyes at that, "Yeah Sam because that's healthy. Is that how it works in the land of fairies and unicorns? You think your relationship is going to last long when it's based on lies and secrets?"
Dean agreed, "You can pretend all you want, Sammy. But sooner or later you're going to have to face up to who you really are."
When they turned to walk down the bridge, Sam quickly caught up, "And who's that?"
Angel threw an annoyed glare his way, "You're one of us."
"No. I'm not like you guys." He quickly came to a stop in front of them, "This is not going to be my life."
"You have a responsibility to-"
"To Dad?" Sam interrupted, "And his crusade? If it weren't for pictures I wouldn't even know what Mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom's gone and she isn't coming back."
There was a beat of silence between the three of them before Dean grabs Sam by the collar and shoves him up against the railing of the bridge.
Fire blazed in his eyes, "Don't talk about her like that!"
"Hey. Hey!" Angel quickly separated them, pushing Dean several feet away and giving him a warning look, "Just enough with the fighting alright? We're not getting anywhere productive with it and we don't have time for it anyway. Let's just... table it, okay?" She looked from Dean, who nodded angrily, to Sam, who nodded as well, "Okay, good."
As Dean walked away to cool off he stopped dead in his tracks at seeing the ghost of Constance standing at the edge of the bridge. Angel and Sam both notice her as well and come to stand next to Dean as she looks over to the three hunters. She stared at them for a beat before stepping off the ledge. The three of them run to the railing and look over but nothing was there.
Deans brows furrowed, "Where'd she go?"
"I don't know." Angel's eyes swept over the water, "I can't see her."
Behind them, the Impala's engine starts and its headlights come on causing them to turn.
Dean scowled, "What the-"
Sam watched it as well, "Who's driving your car?"
Dean pulls the keys out of his pocket and jingles them just as the car jerks into motion, heading straight for them. They turn and sprint the other way but the car is moving faster than they are; when it gets too close, they dive over the railing and the car comes to a halt.