Standing Outside the Fire

29

[Time After Time]

EXT. STREET - NIGHT

A man wearing a fedora hat and long coat walked along a sidewalk in front of a house, and turned down an alley along the side of the house. Dean, Sam and Francesca were in a parked car on the opposite side of the street.

"All right, let's do this," Dean said. "Move fast." He cocked his gun.

Sam and Francesca frowned. "Wait, wait, wait. What's the plan exactly?"

"Don't die."

Dean, Sam and Francesca got out of the car and hurried after Fedora Man.

"He's heading downtown," Dean informed. "All right, you and Frankie take the tree. I'll take the alley. I'll meet you two in the middle."

Dean turned an alleyway corner and saw Fedora Man kneeling over and holding the head of another man, who was on his back on the ground. There was a red light above the prone man's face which seemed like it was being absorbed by Fedora Man.

"Son of a..." Dean began.

Dean ran towards the man. As the red light from the prone man was completely absorbed by Fedora Man, Fedora Man let prone man's head fall to the ground and stood. Sam and Francesca came around the corner and saw Dean tackle Fedora Man. Dean and Fedora Man disappeared in an explosion of red and white light.

"Dean?" Sam and Francesca called.

Sam and Francesca held their arms out in front of their faces as the force of the explosion reached them at the other end of the alley. The light disappeared and everything was still. Dean and Fedora Man were gone.

"Dean?!" Sam and Francesca called again.

TWO DAYS EARLIER

INT. HOUSE - NIGHT

Dean was sitting at a table with a bottle of whiskey and laptop, looked at websites related to Dick Roman: 'Global Economic Report: RRE, a search engine page, Financial Market Watch: Richard Roman Enterprises stock soars. A phone rang. Sam, who was asleep on a bed in the same room, sat up and groaned. Francesca glanced up from the chair she was on.

"Don't give me that dirty-diaper look," Dean said. "We ain't calling you."

Sam answered the phone. "Hello?"

INT. CAR - NIGHT

Jody Mills was driving. "Sam, it's Jody Mills. I wake you?"

"The sheriff? Uh..."

INT. HOUSE - NIGHT

Sam turned on a lamp. "Yeah. Uh, I mean, uh-"

"Listen, I got something that smells like you boys and girl."

INT. CAR - NIGHT

"A body turned up in Canton, Ohio. Local P.D.'s trying to bury the story and the body."

INT. CAR - NIGHT / INT. HOUSE - NIGHT

"Okay, um, so, uh, what's up with the body?" Sam asked.

"Well, when it went missing, it was a perfectly normal grad student named Charles Durbin," Jody replied. "When it turned up, the thing was mummified minus the wrapping. This is actually the second body found like this in the last couple weeks. Sound like a song you boys and girl tap to?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's, that's um... that's our kind of number. Hey, question - how does a sheriff in Sioux Falls get wind of a case in Ohio?"

"I'm just that nosy. Look, after everything I've been through with you boys and girl and... with Bobby, you know, something like this pops up on the wire, it catches my ear. What can I say?"