That Guy (Part Three)
Farrell was standing in the center of the room, blood dripping from a cut lip. His eyes flashed up at the newcomers. At his feet was McClane, crawling on his stomach to put some distance between himself and the other man. Sam could see blood on his face and the way he moved showed signs of a bad beating.
It was so close to what he’d seen when he and Dean had gone to help Becky and Zach, he didn’t doubt it was a shifter for a moment. He had his gun up and aimed at the creature before it could take a step forward.
“We know what you are,” Dean said, his voice relaying the depth of his hatred for shifters.
The shifter smiled, looking from Dean to Sam and back again. “We know what you are too.”
“Just tell us where Farrell is.” Sam said, keeping his voice steady.
The creature took a step back and Sam knew he was going to run. He pulled the trigger but the shifter threw himself to the side. He rolled behind the couch and even as Dean was moving around the side to try to stop it, the shifter jumped through the window.
“God damn it!” Dean cursed as they flew to the window, watching the shifter rolling on the ground outside. He stumbled to his feet and Sam felt Dean moving away, through the door and back down the hallway.
“What the fuck?” He heard McClane behind him, heard the uneven shuffle of his feet as he came up behind Sam.
The shifter looked back up at them, gave a small salute and a wide grin, then ran north. Sam only had to wait a few minutes before Dean was down at street level looking for the shifter. Sam stuck his head out the window. “Dean! North to the park.” Dean raised his hand in acknowledgment then took off without waiting for Sam.
Sam turned around to follow his brother but McClane was standing there, eyes hard and stance immovable. “Where are you going?”
“Dean needs back up.”
“Let’s go then. You can tell me what’s happening on the way.”
“No offense, but you can barely move man.”
McClane shook his head, giving Sam a small smile. “I’ve had worse.”
Sam looked at him for a minute, but gave up the fight. It was keeping him from getting to Dean and he doubted the cop would let it go. “Yeah, come on.”
They didn’t talk as they ran, though Sam was surprised the guy was able to keep up. In all his time as a hunter he’d rarely seen a civilian able to keep moving after a beating like that. Even trained professionals weren’t used to dealing with that level of pain. They were used to having back up and being able to put the load down, to rest and recover, while someone else picked up the load. Whoever McClane was, Sam figured he’d had to do without back up a few times.
“Just go over and talk to him, she said.” McClane was mumbling angrily under his breath as they ran. “He’s sensitive John, he’s insecure, you hurt him and I’ll end you John. Hurt him, Hah!”
Sam pulled to a stop, raising a hand to get McClane to stop with him. “Dean,” he indicated where his brother was walking up to join them.
Dean just shook his head. “I lost him Sammy.”
Sam didn’t say anything, but he pulled his silver knife out of his inner jacket pocket and held it out. Dean rolled his eyes, but after the last time they’d agreed this needed to be done. Dean took the blade in his hand and let it slice the skin, holding his hand up for Sam to see that there was no reaction.
“What the hell?”
“Just making sure he is who he says he is.” Sam said, taking the blade and slicing his own hand. He held it up for Dean to see and shrugged his head towards McClane. “He was with me the whole time. No way a shifter could have switched places with him.”
Dean nodded. “Alright. Let’s go then.”
“Wait. First, what the hell are you talking about, and where do you think you’re going?”
Sam sighed as Dean shook his head, already scanning the ground for what they wanted. “The thing in the room with you wasn’t Matt, it was a shape shifter.”
“A werewolf?”
“No,” Sam said, trying to hide his impatience. “A werewolf is something else. This shape shifter can take the form of any person it wants. He took the shape of Matt’s friend Barry and now he’s going after Matt. We think it’s got to do with the security program he was working on for the gun buy back. The thing has got to be underground by now though. They tend to stick to solitary lairs and the sewers are a good way to get from place to place without being seen.”
He could see that McClane was trying to take it all in, but it was a lot.
“If I hadn’t seen him jump I still wouldn’t believe it.”
“You think he’d have beat you up like that?”
“No, he loves M- he loves me. It’s just easier to think he was capable of that than to think there are monsters in the world.”
Sam nodded in understanding. “We’ll find him. Shifters have to keep their victims alive.”
“So, the sewers?” Sam nodded and McClane gave him a half smile. “Let’s get down there then.”
The sewers were as pleasant as ever. He’s not sure when he lost the ability to throw up over the stench, but he was grateful for it. McClane was following a little slower than Sam would have liked, but he was trooping on anyway. Dean kept turning his head to the side trying to keep his lunch down. His gag reflex had always been tied closely to his sense of smell and Sam couldn’t help himself.
“Doing alright there Dean?”
Dean didn’t bother to answer, but glared back at him. Sam smiled at Dean’s back, following as they made their way into one of the central hubs.
“Sammy, take a look.”
Dean stopped and Sam stopped at his brother’s side, looking down to the left where an offshoot led back towards Farrell’s place. There were two piles of skin on the ground, neither looked too new.
“God, that is just gross.” Dean shook his head in disgust.
“You think that’s gross? You should try having it ripped from your body sometime.” Farrell stepped out from the corridor, a small doorway that Sam had missed as he’d caught sight of the skins.
Sam pulled his gun up, aware that Dean was doing the same thing, when something spun him around. He blocked a fist, but then a hand was caught in his hair and his head was bashed against the wall. The last thing he saw as he began to slip into unconsciousness was McClane standing over him with a vicious smile.
Matt heard the scuffle outside and he closed his eyes, praying it wasn’t what he thought it was. The shifters came back into the room and he had a moment of relief when it wasn’t McClane, but the two men from the diner. Sam and Dean Winchester. He didn’t understand the story behind it all, but the shape shifters were determined to destroy the brothers. They’d been ranting about them ever since they’d taken Matt.
His look alike tied Dean up and started looking around, suddenly aware that something wasn’t right. “Where’s the other one?”
The shifter looked at Matt and his mouth went dry. Closing his eyes, he ignored the panic that welled up, managing to stifle the cry of pain as the shifter grabbed him roughly by the shoulders. “Where is he?”
Matt looked at the empty chair McClane had been tied to and shrugged. “I don’t know man. He said something about pizza.”
He got smacked across the face but the McClane double stopped the next blow. “Come on. He won’t have left Matt here. He’s still in the tunnels.”
“Can you find him?”
The other shifter tilted his head sideways, and then jerked up in pain. Shaking his head, he looked back at Matt. “No, the memories are too fresh yet. I’ll keep trying, but we know he’s here. No way he’s going to get away when his lover is still here. We need to find him before he causes any trouble.”
“You think he’s any trouble for us?”
“Oh yeah. McClane is all kinds of crazy with a hero complex to boot. Let’s change though. If he sees Sam and Dean it’ll give us time to get close to him.”
Matt watched them walk away, then turned his attention to the other two men in the maintenance room with him. Sam was starting to come around, letting out soft moans of pain. He could see blood dripping down his temple in a slow trickle. He looked at Dean though and the other man’s eyes were wide open.
“Well, at least we know where you are now.” Dean said softly. “Any ideas about McClane?”
Matt shook his head. “He got untied but heard them coming back before he could get to me. He threw the tarp back over his chair hoping it would buy him a few minutes. They’re so caught up in catching you that they didn’t notice it when they came back.”
“Caught up in me?”
“You and Sam. They said they wanted to make you suffer.”
“How the hell do they even know us?”
“St. Louis?”
“What?”
“They said they needed to get you back for St. Louis.”
“Fuck.”
Matt looked over to Sam, the one word laden with more than just pain from his injury.
“We didn’t talk to the shifter in Milwaukee, but what if the… I don’t know… the psychic connection between the shifters goes farther than we knew Dean?” Sam asked. “What if they are connected to one another?”
Dean tilted his head to the side, looking slightly up as if to think about it. “Maybe. We know they have some sort of psychic ability to dig through their victim’s memories. Why not that?”
“It would explain how they know about us.”
“Or how they even found each other. It’s not like shifters are all that common.”
“Too common for my tastes,” Sam said with a shrug.
“It you boys are done reminiscing, how about we cut you loose?”
“McClane!” Matt jerked his head around to look over his shoulder. McClane was right behind him, already untying his hands. “They went looking for you.”
“Yeah kid, saw them go past,” he looked at the other two men. “They look like you now.”
“Great. Now they can frame me for another murder.”
McClane looked up but Matt felt the ropes loosen up and he pulled free of the restraint.
McClane looked Matt over as he stood up and Matt felt the concern that McClane was never quite able to express. He nodded, giving a small, half smile to let his lover know he was good. McClane’s response was to hand a gun to him. His fingers lingered a little too long for just a hand off, but Matt took comfort in the touch.
When McClane took a step towards Dean, Matt kept the gun in hand, ready in case the brothers tried anything.
“What the hell? You know we aren’t shifters.” Dean’s voice was angry and Matt could understand that, except that they didn’t have any idea who Sam and Dean were. They weren’t shifters, but they weren’t normal every day citizens either.
“No you’re not,” John said as he untied Dean’s hands first. “but we don’t know what you are, do we? The freaks want to hurt you pretty bad. You wanna explain that?”
“Let me untie Sammy, and I’ll explain it all.”
McClane nodded and Dean moved over to his brother. “We came across two other shape shifters before.” He said as he worked on the knot. “We ended up killing one after he took my face, got me wanted for murder the son of a bitch.”
“Let it go Dean.”
“He drove my car Sam.”
“Let it go.”
Matt wanted to laugh because the banter was so natural to the two men, like being held at gun point in the sewers after they’d been tied up by shape shifters wasn’t anything so far out of the ordinary that it could stop them. He felt a little bubble of panic welling up and he let out a small laugh because it was that or swallow the panic and wait for it to overwhelm him.
“Anyway,” Dean continued. “We met another that was robbing banks. Not the same M.O. so we didn’t think they knew about each other. The suicides were a common factor but that seemed more a matter of necessity than a commonality between the creatures.”
Sam’s hands were free and he flexed his arms for a moment. “Might not be that simple now though. If they knew about us from St. Louis then there is a chance that they know more.”
“What do you mean?”
“They took Dean’s shape, so they had his memories.”
“You’re saying that thing knows things about me?”
“Yeah, about both of you. When they take your shape they can get your memories too.” Dean explained.
McClane shook his head. “I should have stayed in bed this morning.”
Matt bit his bottom lip, but shook his head as Dean moved to the door, peering out into the sewers. “That’s what I said this morning.”
McClane smiled back at him and Sam let out a small laugh as well.
“Think we all should have.” Sam said when they looked at him.
The small amount of repose they had between them died off as Dean came back. “Time to go topside.”
“And let these guys go?”
“We don’t have any weapons.” Sam pointed out.
“I’ve got my gun. Should be enough.”
“Unless you decided to load it with silver, you might as well have a pea shooter. It’s not going to do a damn thing.” Dean said. “We can get back to the motel and resupply, then come back for them.”
McClane looked back at him and then to the brothers. “Alright. But I’ll lead the way.”
Dean nodded and then McClane took his gun back from Matt, leading the way out the door. Sam followed right behind him and Dean motioned Matt through after that, leaving Dean at the back.
He’d never been what anyone would consider graceful, but moving through the tunnels with the other men left him feeling clumsy and loud. Even Sam, towering above them all, moved with a fluid grace that belied his size. Matt stumbled through the tunnels, doing his best to stay small and silent while the others guided the way.
“This is where you’re staying?” McClane asked as they opened the door to the motel room.
“Hunting’s not exactly for the jet setting crowd. The pay is crap.” Dean said as he dropped the bag onto his bed.
Sam watched the others, taking in the way McClane stayed close to Matt and the way the computer guy seemed to settle into what they were doing. He wasn’t sure what sort of history the two had, but it didn’t take a lot to figure it was something traumatic. It was the only way Sam could picture the two of them getting together.
Sam found his second gun in his backpack and pulled it out, still silently fuming about the shifters taking his favorite. It was the first gun he’d ever chosen for himself, Dean taking him out for his sixteenth birthday to pick it out. He still didn’t know how Dean got it for him and he’d never asked, but it wasn’t a hand me down or something John just forced into his hand to learn. It was his and it was his first. He wanted it back damn it.
He took the gun and walked to the bed, pulling out the clip and handing it to Dean. Dean opened the bag and pulled out two more clips, handing one to Sam before he double checked the new clip, sliding it into place.
“You always walk around armed to rob a bank?” McClane asked as he watched them pass the gun back and forth.
“Except when we actually are robbing a bank.” Sam tried to make light of the situation and Dean smiled at him for a second. Ronald’s death in Milwaukee had played havoc with Dean’s psyche for a while after the fobbed bank job where they’d met their second shifter, but he’d come to terms with that death eventually. Just like Dean always did. No matter what Sam sometimes said about his brother’s emotional capacity, he was in awe at the way Dean felt so much empathy with people and still managed to do the job.
“You rob banks?” Farrell asked, taking a seat at the table. His voice was steady but his eyes were wide again.
“No, but we got caught up in what the FBI thought was a bank robbery. We went into the bank without any weapons and… it was a mess.” Dean finished with his gun and pulled out the box of silver bullets. He handed it to McClane and the other man nodded, taking the box to the table. He emptied his clip and started to fill it again with silver bullets since they didn’t have a clip that would fit.
“Matt, you alright?” McClane asked softly.
“Yeah, yeah,” he looked up from the table top where he’d been staring. “Of course. Give me a gun and tell me where to point, right?”
Dean looked over at him and Sam could see the skepticism in the look. “I think it might be better if you stayed behind.”
“What?” Both Matt and McClane spoke at the same time.
“We can take care of this on our own. You don’t need to get involved any further,” Sam offered. “In fact, it just makes it harder since it’s just that many more bodies the shifters can take.
“I’m going after that thing,” McClane said softly, but there was nothing pliant or weak in his voice. He wasn’t going to be left behind.
“Me too.”
“Matt,”
“No John.” Farrell sat up straighter in his chair and looked the cop in the eye. “No body else right?”
Matt looked at the room they were sitting in, at the guns on the bed and then at Sam and Dean, his eyes openly conveying a sense of acceptance. Sam felt staggered by the weight of it, but the intensity of the other man’s faith that they were on the right side of things.
McClane followed his line of sight and then looked back at Matt like he was debating within himself. He finally nodded. “Yeah. No body else.”
Matt’s smile was hesitant, but when McClane gripped his knee with one hand, he smiled brighter. Shaking his head, he looked down and then up again. “It figures, you know.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m at the wrong place and the wrong time? And I’m surrounded by that fucking guy.”
McClane laughed. “No heroes here.”
“Nope, just that fucking guy who can’t give up because there’s no one else.”
Sam looked at his brother and Dean shrugged. “Wow. Sounds like the story of our lives.”
He didn’t know what the look that passed between Matt and McClane was, but he saw the fond smile on the cop’s face and knew that Dean’s comment had meant something more to them.
“We ready to do this?” Dean asked, bringing the focus back to him.
“Yeah.” McClane said, handing his gun to Matt. Matt took it and stood, taking a deep breath as he did.
When McClane walked over to Dean and held his hand out, Dean only took a moment to wait for Sam’s nod before he reached into the bag and loaded another gun with a silver clip. He handed it to McClane.
“Come on Sammy.” He said, stepping over to the door. “Let’s go kill this evil son of a bitch.”
They moved through the sewers quickly, but when they got back to the main room there was nothing to find. “You think they’ve set up someplace else?” Sam asked.
“I don’t think so,” Dean said as he continued to look around the room. “They want to catch us, they want to hurt us. They’re not gonna do that if we don’t know where they are.”
“Then what?”
“My guess is that they’re out there looking for us.”
“What’s the next move then boys?” McClane asked.
“We go back out, wait at the park I chased the one through. They’ll be watching for us.”
“And you’re good with being bait?”
“Won’t be the worst bait we’ve used.” Sam said with a sigh. He hated to think about some of the things they’d done in the course of the hunt, but they’d never lost an innocent as bait yet. They did have a nasty habit of getting hurt when they were the bait though.
“Sam and I can take the north side of the park, and you guys hang back and watch for the shifters.”
They got to the topside but the journey wasn’t any faster. They were still on the lookout for the creatures and it slowed them down. More so because of Matt in their midst. Sam admired his determination and while he held the gun like he knew how to use it, he didn’t move with the same ease that Dean or McClane did. Sam understood. Someone had shown Matt how to use a gun, but he’d never really been trained for the situation behind it, had never had the familiarity with creeping through tunnels and dark corners to learn the fluidity that came with practice. It had taken Sam a long time to learn it himself and even then, it had only happened when Dean had been taken from them. His determination to get Dean back had overruled all his other thoughts and feelings about their lifestyle and the hunt.
They were barely out of the tunnels when McClane’s phone rang. “McClane,” he took the call and Sam watched the pain that crossed his features before it was replaced with determination. “Lucy, where are you?”
The cop was shaking his head. “No, Luce don’t try to make it home. Go to the nearest-“
“Then do it Luce. If you knew what I was going to say then just-“
“Luce? Lucy?”
Matt stepped closer to the other man, leaned in close enough that he could probably hear the conversation. He took a step back though as McClane’s head snapped up. “Oh my god.”
“You listen to me. You let my daughter go.” His whole body tensed and Sam watched him struggle to get his voice under control. “Damn it!” He screamed, not bothering to keep his voice off the phone. “Just so you know asshole, I am going to find you and when I’m done, there won’t be enough of your body left to identify.”
Dean moved to Sam’s side and they watched the man hang up his phone, watched the way Matt stood close, one hand hesitantly clasping McClane’s shoulder.
“McClane,” he said softly. “John, we’ll get her right? Kill the son of a bitch and get her out or get her out and kill the son of a bitch?”
McClane nodded and looked back at Sam and Dean. “They said they had something to take care of, then they’d be back for you two.”
Sam looked at Dean and then back at Matt and McClane. “The warehouse.”
“What warehouse?”
“We think the shifters were targeting you and Barry Miller for a reason. He was working on coding for Morrik Enterprises.”
“What?”
Sam nodded. “We think the shifters are planning to use the code he wrote along with your code to hack into the warehouse where the recent buyback was holding the guns.”
“They could sell the guns to the highest bidder,” McClane supplied.
“They’re moving the guns in two days.” Matt said, rubbing his hand over his face. “Tomorrow more men will be moved in to do an inventory to make sure all the guns are there and they’ll be moved the next day.”
“So they need to hit it today.” Dean said.
“Yeah.”
“Let’s go get Lucy then.” McClane said. He didn’t look back at them, but made his way out of the park and back to where the Impala was waiting for them.
It was so close to what he’d seen when he and Dean had gone to help Becky and Zach, he didn’t doubt it was a shifter for a moment. He had his gun up and aimed at the creature before it could take a step forward.
“We know what you are,” Dean said, his voice relaying the depth of his hatred for shifters.
The shifter smiled, looking from Dean to Sam and back again. “We know what you are too.”
“Just tell us where Farrell is.” Sam said, keeping his voice steady.
The creature took a step back and Sam knew he was going to run. He pulled the trigger but the shifter threw himself to the side. He rolled behind the couch and even as Dean was moving around the side to try to stop it, the shifter jumped through the window.
“God damn it!” Dean cursed as they flew to the window, watching the shifter rolling on the ground outside. He stumbled to his feet and Sam felt Dean moving away, through the door and back down the hallway.
“What the fuck?” He heard McClane behind him, heard the uneven shuffle of his feet as he came up behind Sam.
The shifter looked back up at them, gave a small salute and a wide grin, then ran north. Sam only had to wait a few minutes before Dean was down at street level looking for the shifter. Sam stuck his head out the window. “Dean! North to the park.” Dean raised his hand in acknowledgment then took off without waiting for Sam.
Sam turned around to follow his brother but McClane was standing there, eyes hard and stance immovable. “Where are you going?”
“Dean needs back up.”
“Let’s go then. You can tell me what’s happening on the way.”
“No offense, but you can barely move man.”
McClane shook his head, giving Sam a small smile. “I’ve had worse.”
Sam looked at him for a minute, but gave up the fight. It was keeping him from getting to Dean and he doubted the cop would let it go. “Yeah, come on.”
They didn’t talk as they ran, though Sam was surprised the guy was able to keep up. In all his time as a hunter he’d rarely seen a civilian able to keep moving after a beating like that. Even trained professionals weren’t used to dealing with that level of pain. They were used to having back up and being able to put the load down, to rest and recover, while someone else picked up the load. Whoever McClane was, Sam figured he’d had to do without back up a few times.
“Just go over and talk to him, she said.” McClane was mumbling angrily under his breath as they ran. “He’s sensitive John, he’s insecure, you hurt him and I’ll end you John. Hurt him, Hah!”
Sam pulled to a stop, raising a hand to get McClane to stop with him. “Dean,” he indicated where his brother was walking up to join them.
Dean just shook his head. “I lost him Sammy.”
Sam didn’t say anything, but he pulled his silver knife out of his inner jacket pocket and held it out. Dean rolled his eyes, but after the last time they’d agreed this needed to be done. Dean took the blade in his hand and let it slice the skin, holding his hand up for Sam to see that there was no reaction.
“What the hell?”
“Just making sure he is who he says he is.” Sam said, taking the blade and slicing his own hand. He held it up for Dean to see and shrugged his head towards McClane. “He was with me the whole time. No way a shifter could have switched places with him.”
Dean nodded. “Alright. Let’s go then.”
“Wait. First, what the hell are you talking about, and where do you think you’re going?”
Sam sighed as Dean shook his head, already scanning the ground for what they wanted. “The thing in the room with you wasn’t Matt, it was a shape shifter.”
“A werewolf?”
“No,” Sam said, trying to hide his impatience. “A werewolf is something else. This shape shifter can take the form of any person it wants. He took the shape of Matt’s friend Barry and now he’s going after Matt. We think it’s got to do with the security program he was working on for the gun buy back. The thing has got to be underground by now though. They tend to stick to solitary lairs and the sewers are a good way to get from place to place without being seen.”
He could see that McClane was trying to take it all in, but it was a lot.
“If I hadn’t seen him jump I still wouldn’t believe it.”
“You think he’d have beat you up like that?”
“No, he loves M- he loves me. It’s just easier to think he was capable of that than to think there are monsters in the world.”
Sam nodded in understanding. “We’ll find him. Shifters have to keep their victims alive.”
“So, the sewers?” Sam nodded and McClane gave him a half smile. “Let’s get down there then.”
The sewers were as pleasant as ever. He’s not sure when he lost the ability to throw up over the stench, but he was grateful for it. McClane was following a little slower than Sam would have liked, but he was trooping on anyway. Dean kept turning his head to the side trying to keep his lunch down. His gag reflex had always been tied closely to his sense of smell and Sam couldn’t help himself.
“Doing alright there Dean?”
Dean didn’t bother to answer, but glared back at him. Sam smiled at Dean’s back, following as they made their way into one of the central hubs.
“Sammy, take a look.”
Dean stopped and Sam stopped at his brother’s side, looking down to the left where an offshoot led back towards Farrell’s place. There were two piles of skin on the ground, neither looked too new.
“God, that is just gross.” Dean shook his head in disgust.
“You think that’s gross? You should try having it ripped from your body sometime.” Farrell stepped out from the corridor, a small doorway that Sam had missed as he’d caught sight of the skins.
Sam pulled his gun up, aware that Dean was doing the same thing, when something spun him around. He blocked a fist, but then a hand was caught in his hair and his head was bashed against the wall. The last thing he saw as he began to slip into unconsciousness was McClane standing over him with a vicious smile.
Matt heard the scuffle outside and he closed his eyes, praying it wasn’t what he thought it was. The shifters came back into the room and he had a moment of relief when it wasn’t McClane, but the two men from the diner. Sam and Dean Winchester. He didn’t understand the story behind it all, but the shape shifters were determined to destroy the brothers. They’d been ranting about them ever since they’d taken Matt.
His look alike tied Dean up and started looking around, suddenly aware that something wasn’t right. “Where’s the other one?”
The shifter looked at Matt and his mouth went dry. Closing his eyes, he ignored the panic that welled up, managing to stifle the cry of pain as the shifter grabbed him roughly by the shoulders. “Where is he?”
Matt looked at the empty chair McClane had been tied to and shrugged. “I don’t know man. He said something about pizza.”
He got smacked across the face but the McClane double stopped the next blow. “Come on. He won’t have left Matt here. He’s still in the tunnels.”
“Can you find him?”
The other shifter tilted his head sideways, and then jerked up in pain. Shaking his head, he looked back at Matt. “No, the memories are too fresh yet. I’ll keep trying, but we know he’s here. No way he’s going to get away when his lover is still here. We need to find him before he causes any trouble.”
“You think he’s any trouble for us?”
“Oh yeah. McClane is all kinds of crazy with a hero complex to boot. Let’s change though. If he sees Sam and Dean it’ll give us time to get close to him.”
Matt watched them walk away, then turned his attention to the other two men in the maintenance room with him. Sam was starting to come around, letting out soft moans of pain. He could see blood dripping down his temple in a slow trickle. He looked at Dean though and the other man’s eyes were wide open.
“Well, at least we know where you are now.” Dean said softly. “Any ideas about McClane?”
Matt shook his head. “He got untied but heard them coming back before he could get to me. He threw the tarp back over his chair hoping it would buy him a few minutes. They’re so caught up in catching you that they didn’t notice it when they came back.”
“Caught up in me?”
“You and Sam. They said they wanted to make you suffer.”
“How the hell do they even know us?”
“St. Louis?”
“What?”
“They said they needed to get you back for St. Louis.”
“Fuck.”
Matt looked over to Sam, the one word laden with more than just pain from his injury.
“We didn’t talk to the shifter in Milwaukee, but what if the… I don’t know… the psychic connection between the shifters goes farther than we knew Dean?” Sam asked. “What if they are connected to one another?”
Dean tilted his head to the side, looking slightly up as if to think about it. “Maybe. We know they have some sort of psychic ability to dig through their victim’s memories. Why not that?”
“It would explain how they know about us.”
“Or how they even found each other. It’s not like shifters are all that common.”
“Too common for my tastes,” Sam said with a shrug.
“It you boys are done reminiscing, how about we cut you loose?”
“McClane!” Matt jerked his head around to look over his shoulder. McClane was right behind him, already untying his hands. “They went looking for you.”
“Yeah kid, saw them go past,” he looked at the other two men. “They look like you now.”
“Great. Now they can frame me for another murder.”
McClane looked up but Matt felt the ropes loosen up and he pulled free of the restraint.
McClane looked Matt over as he stood up and Matt felt the concern that McClane was never quite able to express. He nodded, giving a small, half smile to let his lover know he was good. McClane’s response was to hand a gun to him. His fingers lingered a little too long for just a hand off, but Matt took comfort in the touch.
When McClane took a step towards Dean, Matt kept the gun in hand, ready in case the brothers tried anything.
“What the hell? You know we aren’t shifters.” Dean’s voice was angry and Matt could understand that, except that they didn’t have any idea who Sam and Dean were. They weren’t shifters, but they weren’t normal every day citizens either.
“No you’re not,” John said as he untied Dean’s hands first. “but we don’t know what you are, do we? The freaks want to hurt you pretty bad. You wanna explain that?”
“Let me untie Sammy, and I’ll explain it all.”
McClane nodded and Dean moved over to his brother. “We came across two other shape shifters before.” He said as he worked on the knot. “We ended up killing one after he took my face, got me wanted for murder the son of a bitch.”
“Let it go Dean.”
“He drove my car Sam.”
“Let it go.”
Matt wanted to laugh because the banter was so natural to the two men, like being held at gun point in the sewers after they’d been tied up by shape shifters wasn’t anything so far out of the ordinary that it could stop them. He felt a little bubble of panic welling up and he let out a small laugh because it was that or swallow the panic and wait for it to overwhelm him.
“Anyway,” Dean continued. “We met another that was robbing banks. Not the same M.O. so we didn’t think they knew about each other. The suicides were a common factor but that seemed more a matter of necessity than a commonality between the creatures.”
Sam’s hands were free and he flexed his arms for a moment. “Might not be that simple now though. If they knew about us from St. Louis then there is a chance that they know more.”
“What do you mean?”
“They took Dean’s shape, so they had his memories.”
“You’re saying that thing knows things about me?”
“Yeah, about both of you. When they take your shape they can get your memories too.” Dean explained.
McClane shook his head. “I should have stayed in bed this morning.”
Matt bit his bottom lip, but shook his head as Dean moved to the door, peering out into the sewers. “That’s what I said this morning.”
McClane smiled back at him and Sam let out a small laugh as well.
“Think we all should have.” Sam said when they looked at him.
The small amount of repose they had between them died off as Dean came back. “Time to go topside.”
“And let these guys go?”
“We don’t have any weapons.” Sam pointed out.
“I’ve got my gun. Should be enough.”
“Unless you decided to load it with silver, you might as well have a pea shooter. It’s not going to do a damn thing.” Dean said. “We can get back to the motel and resupply, then come back for them.”
McClane looked back at him and then to the brothers. “Alright. But I’ll lead the way.”
Dean nodded and then McClane took his gun back from Matt, leading the way out the door. Sam followed right behind him and Dean motioned Matt through after that, leaving Dean at the back.
He’d never been what anyone would consider graceful, but moving through the tunnels with the other men left him feeling clumsy and loud. Even Sam, towering above them all, moved with a fluid grace that belied his size. Matt stumbled through the tunnels, doing his best to stay small and silent while the others guided the way.
“This is where you’re staying?” McClane asked as they opened the door to the motel room.
“Hunting’s not exactly for the jet setting crowd. The pay is crap.” Dean said as he dropped the bag onto his bed.
Sam watched the others, taking in the way McClane stayed close to Matt and the way the computer guy seemed to settle into what they were doing. He wasn’t sure what sort of history the two had, but it didn’t take a lot to figure it was something traumatic. It was the only way Sam could picture the two of them getting together.
Sam found his second gun in his backpack and pulled it out, still silently fuming about the shifters taking his favorite. It was the first gun he’d ever chosen for himself, Dean taking him out for his sixteenth birthday to pick it out. He still didn’t know how Dean got it for him and he’d never asked, but it wasn’t a hand me down or something John just forced into his hand to learn. It was his and it was his first. He wanted it back damn it.
He took the gun and walked to the bed, pulling out the clip and handing it to Dean. Dean opened the bag and pulled out two more clips, handing one to Sam before he double checked the new clip, sliding it into place.
“You always walk around armed to rob a bank?” McClane asked as he watched them pass the gun back and forth.
“Except when we actually are robbing a bank.” Sam tried to make light of the situation and Dean smiled at him for a second. Ronald’s death in Milwaukee had played havoc with Dean’s psyche for a while after the fobbed bank job where they’d met their second shifter, but he’d come to terms with that death eventually. Just like Dean always did. No matter what Sam sometimes said about his brother’s emotional capacity, he was in awe at the way Dean felt so much empathy with people and still managed to do the job.
“You rob banks?” Farrell asked, taking a seat at the table. His voice was steady but his eyes were wide again.
“No, but we got caught up in what the FBI thought was a bank robbery. We went into the bank without any weapons and… it was a mess.” Dean finished with his gun and pulled out the box of silver bullets. He handed it to McClane and the other man nodded, taking the box to the table. He emptied his clip and started to fill it again with silver bullets since they didn’t have a clip that would fit.
“Matt, you alright?” McClane asked softly.
“Yeah, yeah,” he looked up from the table top where he’d been staring. “Of course. Give me a gun and tell me where to point, right?”
Dean looked over at him and Sam could see the skepticism in the look. “I think it might be better if you stayed behind.”
“What?” Both Matt and McClane spoke at the same time.
“We can take care of this on our own. You don’t need to get involved any further,” Sam offered. “In fact, it just makes it harder since it’s just that many more bodies the shifters can take.
“I’m going after that thing,” McClane said softly, but there was nothing pliant or weak in his voice. He wasn’t going to be left behind.
“Me too.”
“Matt,”
“No John.” Farrell sat up straighter in his chair and looked the cop in the eye. “No body else right?”
Matt looked at the room they were sitting in, at the guns on the bed and then at Sam and Dean, his eyes openly conveying a sense of acceptance. Sam felt staggered by the weight of it, but the intensity of the other man’s faith that they were on the right side of things.
McClane followed his line of sight and then looked back at Matt like he was debating within himself. He finally nodded. “Yeah. No body else.”
Matt’s smile was hesitant, but when McClane gripped his knee with one hand, he smiled brighter. Shaking his head, he looked down and then up again. “It figures, you know.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m at the wrong place and the wrong time? And I’m surrounded by that fucking guy.”
McClane laughed. “No heroes here.”
“Nope, just that fucking guy who can’t give up because there’s no one else.”
Sam looked at his brother and Dean shrugged. “Wow. Sounds like the story of our lives.”
He didn’t know what the look that passed between Matt and McClane was, but he saw the fond smile on the cop’s face and knew that Dean’s comment had meant something more to them.
“We ready to do this?” Dean asked, bringing the focus back to him.
“Yeah.” McClane said, handing his gun to Matt. Matt took it and stood, taking a deep breath as he did.
When McClane walked over to Dean and held his hand out, Dean only took a moment to wait for Sam’s nod before he reached into the bag and loaded another gun with a silver clip. He handed it to McClane.
“Come on Sammy.” He said, stepping over to the door. “Let’s go kill this evil son of a bitch.”
They moved through the sewers quickly, but when they got back to the main room there was nothing to find. “You think they’ve set up someplace else?” Sam asked.
“I don’t think so,” Dean said as he continued to look around the room. “They want to catch us, they want to hurt us. They’re not gonna do that if we don’t know where they are.”
“Then what?”
“My guess is that they’re out there looking for us.”
“What’s the next move then boys?” McClane asked.
“We go back out, wait at the park I chased the one through. They’ll be watching for us.”
“And you’re good with being bait?”
“Won’t be the worst bait we’ve used.” Sam said with a sigh. He hated to think about some of the things they’d done in the course of the hunt, but they’d never lost an innocent as bait yet. They did have a nasty habit of getting hurt when they were the bait though.
“Sam and I can take the north side of the park, and you guys hang back and watch for the shifters.”
They got to the topside but the journey wasn’t any faster. They were still on the lookout for the creatures and it slowed them down. More so because of Matt in their midst. Sam admired his determination and while he held the gun like he knew how to use it, he didn’t move with the same ease that Dean or McClane did. Sam understood. Someone had shown Matt how to use a gun, but he’d never really been trained for the situation behind it, had never had the familiarity with creeping through tunnels and dark corners to learn the fluidity that came with practice. It had taken Sam a long time to learn it himself and even then, it had only happened when Dean had been taken from them. His determination to get Dean back had overruled all his other thoughts and feelings about their lifestyle and the hunt.
They were barely out of the tunnels when McClane’s phone rang. “McClane,” he took the call and Sam watched the pain that crossed his features before it was replaced with determination. “Lucy, where are you?”
The cop was shaking his head. “No, Luce don’t try to make it home. Go to the nearest-“
“Then do it Luce. If you knew what I was going to say then just-“
“Luce? Lucy?”
Matt stepped closer to the other man, leaned in close enough that he could probably hear the conversation. He took a step back though as McClane’s head snapped up. “Oh my god.”
“You listen to me. You let my daughter go.” His whole body tensed and Sam watched him struggle to get his voice under control. “Damn it!” He screamed, not bothering to keep his voice off the phone. “Just so you know asshole, I am going to find you and when I’m done, there won’t be enough of your body left to identify.”
Dean moved to Sam’s side and they watched the man hang up his phone, watched the way Matt stood close, one hand hesitantly clasping McClane’s shoulder.
“McClane,” he said softly. “John, we’ll get her right? Kill the son of a bitch and get her out or get her out and kill the son of a bitch?”
McClane nodded and looked back at Sam and Dean. “They said they had something to take care of, then they’d be back for you two.”
Sam looked at Dean and then back at Matt and McClane. “The warehouse.”
“What warehouse?”
“We think the shifters were targeting you and Barry Miller for a reason. He was working on coding for Morrik Enterprises.”
“What?”
Sam nodded. “We think the shifters are planning to use the code he wrote along with your code to hack into the warehouse where the recent buyback was holding the guns.”
“They could sell the guns to the highest bidder,” McClane supplied.
“They’re moving the guns in two days.” Matt said, rubbing his hand over his face. “Tomorrow more men will be moved in to do an inventory to make sure all the guns are there and they’ll be moved the next day.”
“So they need to hit it today.” Dean said.
“Yeah.”
“Let’s go get Lucy then.” McClane said. He didn’t look back at them, but made his way out of the park and back to where the Impala was waiting for them.