Even Monsters have a Social 5/?

[emebalia]

Chapter 5

Harold caught another call from Dean to Sam in which Dean admitted he'd lost John and was now heading for Rachel's place.

"Shall I pick you up first?" Dean asked and from a safe distance John watched him coming out of the building.

"Think you need me there?" Sam asked back. "I'm on to something here."

"Somehow I doubt she's going to be there. It's never that easy." Dean answered while he dug his keys out of his pocket.


John didn't wait for Dean, he'd probably notice him if he tried to follow him, and turned his car in the direction of Rachel's apartment. With his little head-start John was back to his observation spot on the roof across the street by the time Dean entered Rachel's place. It didn't surprise him that Dean had no trouble opening the door without a key, though.
He wasn't sure what Dean hoped to find there, John had been over the place twice so far and had found nothing.

John raised an eyebrow at Dean's professional sweep through the place.

His father was a marine, John reminded himself, must have trained his boys.

However, he would have expected Dean to do this with a gun in hand. Last night John had seen several weapons on the bed, waiting for Dean's attention, and he was pretty sure Dean had at least one gun on him but he did the sweep with only a knife in hand.

When Dean was sure he was alone in the place, he put the knife back and had a more thorough look around. He picked up an abandoned bra by one strap, a pink one maybe even the one John had seen on Rachel what felt like a long time ago, with a grin that could only be described as lascivious.

That grin alone made John itch for his gun, it would be easy to put a bullet in Dean's head right now. He'd never knew what hit him.

However, John didn't pull the trigger. Partly because he figured Sam Winchester would react badly to the news of his brother's death which could very well end in a killing spree and partly because John was curious what this was all about. So far nothing made sense and he liked things to make sense. And he still needed to find Rachel.

Dean dropped the bra after a second and shook his head as if he wanted to get rid of unpleasant thoughts. Then he went on with his search through the meager leftovers of Rachel Martin's life.

He was thorough, John had to give him that, but in the end he too came up with nothing. Just like John had expected.

When Dean got his phone out John waited alongside him for Sam to pick up. He wondered what they'd do next. So far they hadn't acted like John had expected them to and that bothered him. Usually people were pretty predictable but not the Winchesters.

"Rachel's gone." Dean informed his brother when he picked up after the second ring. "Left in a hurry, looks like."

"Shit." Was Sam's comment on that.

"You found something on your end?" Dean stood at the window but his gaze didn't settle on John.

"Not much on Johnny Undercover." Sam answered. "There has been a FBI investigation on The Man in the Suit not long ago. Could be our guy. But they tried to keep a lid on that one. There are rumors, though."

"The Man in the Suit?" Dean asked and John cringed at that nickname. "Some kind of superhero?"

"More like some kind of vigilante." John heard the disapprove in those words. "Messing with cops and criminals alike."

"Let me guess, he tends to leave bodies behind?" Dean mused with a bitter tone to his voice.

Little hypocritical, aren't we? John thought. They were the last to judge him, he helped people.

"Actually, no." Sam clarified. "Looks like he's more into shooting kneecaps. Very few casualties so far." Sam was good, John had to admit, finding all this in such a short amount of time.

"So far." Dean repeated. He turned from the window and started walking up and down the living room. "Could still be our Mister Ed."

Mister Ed? John had been called names before but this was a new one.

"These jokes are getting old." Sam didn't sound amused. "You know if he's the vigilante type he could be after us."

"We're supposed to be dead." Dean reminded him. "And he already was at the hospital. Two days ago I didn't know we were going to New York and we were at the other side of the country. No, he can't be after us. He's either one of those nightmare things ..."

"Nachtmahre." Sam corrected.

"... nightmare things himself." Dean didn't miss a beat. "Or he's her jealous boyfriend or something. You had more luck with Rachel?"

"What are they talking about, Finch?" John asked over Sam saying: "Found an old article about her. More specific on her mother."

"I don't know." Came Harold's answer and the distant sound of tapping overlapped with Dean's "Her mother?"

John wanted to say more but that had to wait until Sam and Dean had finished their quite confusing conversation.

Nachtmahre, to John the word sounded vaguely Germanic. The name of a group or a code-word maybe? Harold was already on it. If there was something to find on that, he'd find it. So John just kept listening into the conversation.

"Get this, when Rachel was nineteen her mother died in a mugging gone wrong." Sam sounded smug and John made a mental note to save one bullet for the younger Winchester.

"Stabbed?" Dean sounded equally pleased with that.

"They never found the weapon but the paper talked about a knife and six or seven hits." Sam summed it up.

"Somebody made sure. Good job." Dean said with sarcasm in his voice. "But he totally missed the daughter. Sloppy on that end."

"Or she got away." Sam suggested but he didn't sound sure.

"Like this time?" Dean made a helpless gesture at the empty apartment.

"She can't just leave." Sam dismissed the idea and John still felt like he was missing quite some back-story here. "These things are very territorial, they set a feeding ground and stick to it."

"She's been here less than two years, Sam." Dean poked a hole in his brother's argumentation. By now John was just listening, taking in the information without even trying to make sense out of it.

"Oh, she can move on and find a different feeding ground." Sam reassured his brother. "However, lore says before she can leave a place she has to count her victims." John couldn't see Sam, neither could Dean for that matter, but the air-quotes were clearly there.

"What now?" Dean rubbed his face. "Fury with OCD?"

"More like a walk down the memory lane." Sam clarified without acknowledging the horse joke. "It takes a while, she needs a safe place where she won't be disturbed."

"What are we looking for?" Dean asked and from his grin alone John knew there was another horse joke coming. "A stable?"

"Dean." Sam sounded like a whiny little brother.

"Okay." Dean laughed but sobered the next second. "She's not here and as far as I know she doesn't have another place to go. No friends either. So where could she be?"

There was a long pause on both ends while John was pondering the same question.

They were talking crazy or in a very strange code, John wasn't sure what.

After all, Dean was the man who'd claimed a vengeful spirit was behind the killings he'd been accused of in Baltimore which may or may not have been just for distraction.

Crazy talk aside, if they were right with Rachel hiding some place safe and familiar John knew where to look.

Already half-way down the stairs he asked Finch to have a look at the blue-prints of the hospital.

"A storage room maybe." John suggested while he jogged over to his car. "Or in the basement. There have to be rooms rarely used, a room where she could hide for a while."

In the hospital she even could get food and other supplies easily without drawing attention to herself.

Still connected to the conversation between the brothers John heard them coming to the same conclusion. They blurted out "The hospital." in unison which would have made John smile if it hadn't been for the seriousness of the situation.

With a "Pick me up." Sam ended the call and John calculated the time it would take Dean to pick up his brother and get to the hospital. There they would have to search the building the old-fashioned way while John had the advantage of Harold whispering in his ear.

"You think she's back at the hospital, Mr. Reese?" Harold's voice filled the silence in the car.

"We better make sure before they find her." John didn't want to think about what the Winchesters might do to Rachel. "Anything about this Nachtmahre thing?"

"The only reference I can find is to a mythical creature from European lore, mainly German, which apparently is known for giving nightmares. It actually is the root of the word nightmare, Mr. Reese."

"Thanks for the linguistic lesson, Finch." John gritted his teeth and steered the car through the traffic. At this rate it would take him at least forty-five minutes to get to the hospital. However, the Winchesters would have to face the same problem. "Anything useful?"

"I have to apologize, Mr. Reese, but so far I wasn't able to find any references to a group or operation with that name." Harold actually sounded sorry. "Given Mr. Winchester's documented expression of his belief in the supernatural it is entirely possible that they believe Ms. Martin is in fact such a creature."

Which didn't help to reassure John at all. He knew what the Winchesters, especially Dean, had done to people before, if they didn't even think of Rachel as a person …

John stepped on the accelerator.

By the time John reached the hospital Harold had the most likely hiding places ready. If Rachel was hiding somewhere in this place he would find her and make sure the Winchesters didn't get their hands on her. Harold had already a safe house ready for them. Once they had Rachel somewhere safe John had a few questions for her, though.

She wouldn't have gone into hiding if she didn't knew something was going on.

So far Rachel was the only one he'd come across who might give him a plausible explanation to this. One that didn't involve mystical creatures from medieval Europe.

He started his search in the basement but if she was hiding somewhere in this building, which still was a big if, she was smart enough to not hide in the most obvious spot.

For the next hour John searched storage room after storage room and every other place he could think of where somebody could hide for a longer period of time.

"I don't think, she's here, Finch." John said while he stepped out of just another janitor's closet.

"There is something we haven't considered so far." Harold wasn't quite ready to give up. "She could be in one of the patients' rooms."

"Playing visitor?" John asked. "Wouldn't that be a little too risky?"

"Not if the patient is not responsive." Harold pointed out. "But I suggest you hurry, Mr. Reese. The Winchester brothers have arrived at the hospital."

The Nightingale Hospital Center had an extra unit for long-term coma patients and patients in a vegetative state.

John found Rachel in the second room he tried.

They patient was lying in his bed, heart monitor quietly beeping at his side, completely unaware of what was going on around him. On a chair at the window but facing the wall sat Rachel Martin with her eyes closed. If she was sleeping or deep in thoughts, John couldn't tell. It took her a moment to realize she wasn't alone in the room any longer.

Slowly as if she was rising from a deep sleep she opened her eyes and turned his head to face him.

"Hello, Rachel."

Chapter 6
Masterpost