Phoenix [Supernatural Season 1]

Asylum

Phoenix sat on her motel silently as Sam talked on the phone with someone about John Winchester's whereabouts.

"No, Dad was in California last we heard from him. We just thought....he comes to you for 'munitions...maybe you've seen him in the last few weeks. Just, call us if you hear anything. Thanks," Sam hung up the phone.

"Caleb hasn't heard from him?" Dean asked.

"Nope. And neither has Jefferson or Pastor Jim. What about the journal? Anything leads in there?"

"No, same as last time I looked. Nothing I can make out...I love the guy, but I swear, he writes like friggin' Yoda,"

Phoe threw a pillow at Dean "Show Yoda some respect,"

Sam shook his head at Phoenix's antics "You know, maybe we should call the Feds. File a missing person's,"

"We've talked about this." Dean sighed "Dad'd be pissed if we put the Feds on his tail,"

"I don't care anymore. After all that happened back in Kansas, I mean...he should've been there, Dean. You said so yourself. You tried to call him and...nothing,"

"I know!"

"You know, he could be dead for all we know,"

"Don't say that! He's not dead! He's-he's..."

"He's what? He's hiding? He's busy?"

Phoe rolled her eyes as the boys argued, becoming confused when her cell phone dinged with a notification. She opened up her flip phone and saw a text from an unknown number: 42, -89. "Huh,"

"What?" Sam asked.

"It's, uh...it's a text message. Its coordinates,"

"Let me see that," Dean took the cell phone from Phoenix and looked over the numbers before grabbing Phoenix's laptop and typing.

"You think Dad was texting Phoe?" Sam wondered.

"He's given us coordinates before," Dean proclaimed.

"Why would he text me?" Phoe asked "I've never even met the guy except through pictures. How would he even know my number?!"

"Phoe, it's good news! It means he's okay, or alive at least,"

"Well, was there a number on the caller ID?" Sam asked.

Phoenix shook her head "No, it said unknown,"

"Well, where do the coordinates point?"

"Rockford, Illinois," Dean replied.

Phoe quirked an eyebrow "Ok, now that's interesting,"

"Interesting how?" Sam wondered.

"I checked the local Rockford paper." Phoenix slid the paper onto the table so the boys could see it "This cop, Walter Kelly, comes home from his shift, shoots his wife, then puts the gun in his mouth, blows his brains out. And earlier that night, Kelly and his partner responded to a call at the Roosevelt Asylum,"

"I'm not following." Dean said, "What has this have to with us?"

"Your dad earmarked the same asylum in the journal." Phoe flipped the pages of John's journal "Let's see...Seven unconfirmed sightings, two deaths-till last week at least." She looked up at the boys "I think this is where he wants us to go,"

Sam snorted "This is a job...Dad wants us to work a job,"

"Well, maybe we'll meet up with him?" Dean shrugged "Maybe he's there?"

"Maybe he's not? I mean, he could be sending us there, by ourselves, to hunt this thing,"

"Who cares!" Dean argued, "If he wants us there, that's good enough for me!"

"This doesn't strike you as weird?" Phoenix asked "The texting? The coordinates?"

"Phoe! Dad's tellin' us to go somewhere, we're goin',"

Phoe looked over at Sam "I still find it weird that he texted my phone,"

***

"You're Daniel Gunderson." Dean said as he walked up to the officer as he sat alone at the bar "You're a cop, right?"

"Yeah," Gunderson replied.

"Huh. I'm uh, Nigel Tufnel, The Chicago Tribune. Mind if I ask you a couple of questions, about your partner?"

"Yeah, I do. I'm just tryin' to have a beer here,"

"That's okay, I swear it won't take that long. I just want to get the story in your words,"

"A week ago, my partner was sitting in that chair. Now he's dead. You gonna ambush me here?"

"Sorry. But I need to know what happened,"

Phoenix pushed Dean aside roughly "Hey buddy, why don't you leave the poor guy alone! The man's an officer! Why dontcha show a little respect!"

Dean paused, staring, then walked off.

"You didn't have to do that," Gunderson told Phoe.

"Yeah, course I did. That guy's a jerk. Let me buy you a beer, huh?" Phoenix looked at the barman "Two?"

"Thanks,"

***

Phoenix walked out of the bar.

"Shoved me kinda hard in there, Phoe," Dean huffed.

Phoe shrugged with a smirk "I had to sell it, didn't I?"

"What'd you find out from Gunderson?" Sam asked.

"So, Walter Kelly was a good cop." Phoenix explained "Head of his class, even-keeled, he had a bright future ahead of him,"

"What about at home?" Dean questioned.

"He and his wife had a few fights, like everybody, but he was mostly smooth sailing. They were even talking about having kids,"

"Alright, so either Kelly had some deep-seated crazy waiting to bust out, or something else did it to him,"

"Right," Sam agreed.

"What'd Gunderson tell you about the asylum?" Dean asked Phoe.

"A lot," Phoenix nodded.