Love Never Dies (SPN Fanfic)

Dead in the Water

Dean sat in a booth circling obituaries in a newspaper.

An attractive waitress, whose nametag said Wendy, approached. "Can I get you anything else?"

Dean looked up and grinned around the pen he was chewing on.

Sam came over and sat down "Just the check, please,"

"Okay," Wendy said as she walked away.

Dean dropped his head, then looked at Sam "you know, Sam, we are allowed to have fun once in a while," he pointed to Wendy walking away "That's fun,"

Sam looked at Dean as he was handed the newspaper.

"Here," Dean said "take a look at this, I think I got one. Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin. Last week Sophie Carlton, eighteen, walks into the lake, doesn't walk out. Authorities dragged the water; nothing. Sophie Carlton is the third Lake Manitoc drowning this year. None of the other bodies were found either. They had a funeral two days ago,"

"A funeral?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, it's weird, they buried an empty coffin. For, uh, closure or whatever,"

"Closure? What closure? People don't just disappear, Dean." Sam argued "Other people just stop looking for them,"

"Something you want to say to me?"

"The trail for Dad. it's getting colder every day,"

"Exactly. So what are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know. Something. Anything,"

"You know what? I'm sick of this attitude. You don't think I wanna find Dad as much as you do?"

"Yeah, I know you do, it's just..."

"I'm the one that's been with him every single day for the past two years, while you've been off to college going to pep rallies." Dean argued "We will find Dad, but until then, we're gonna kill everything bad between here and there. Okay?"

Sam rolled his eyes as Wendy walked by, distracting Dean. "All right, Lake Manitoc. Hey!"

Dean returned his attention to Sam "Huh?"

"How far?"

***

Dean knocked on the door of the Carltons'.

A man opened the door.

"Will Carlton?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," The man answered "that's right,"

"I'm Agent Ford. This is Agent Hamill. We're with the US Wildlife Service." Dean held up an ID.

***

Will brought Sam and Dean around to the dock to see Bill Carlton. "She was about a hundred yards out." He explained "That's where she got dragged down,"

"And you're sure she didn't just drown?" Dean asked.

"Yeah. She was a varsity swimmer. She practically grew up in that lake. She was as safe out there as in her own bathtub,"

"So no splashing? No signs of distress?" Sam wondered.

"No, that's what I'm telling you,"

"Did you see any shadows in the water? Maybe some dark shape breached the surface?" Dean reasoned.

"No. Again, she was really far out there,"

"You ever see any strange tracks by the shoreline?"

"No, never. Why? Why, what do you think's out there?"

"We'll let you know as soon as we do," Dean said as he headed back to the Impala.

"What about your father?" Sam asked

Dean stopped and turned back.

"Can we talk to him?"

Will turned to look at Bill, then turned back "Look, if you don't mind, I mean...he didn't see anything and he's kind of been through a lot,"

"We understand," Sam nodded and followed Dean back to the Impala.

***

"Now, I'm sorry, but why does the Wildlife Service care about an accidental drowning?" Sheriff Jake Devins asked the Winchesters as they entered his office.

"You sure it's accidental?" Sam wondered "Will Carlton saw something grab his sister,"

"Like what? There are no indigenous carnivores in that lake. There's nothing even big enough to pull down a person unless it was the Loch Ness Monster,"

"Yeah," Dean laughed "Right,"

"Will Carlton was traumatized, and sometimes the mind plays tricks. Still...We dragged that entire lake. We even ran a sonar sweep, just to be sure, and there was nothing down there,"

"That's weird, though, I mean, that's, that's the third missing body this year,"

"I know." Jake sighed "These are people from my own town. These are people I care about,"

"I know,"

"Anyway...All this it won't be a problem much longer,"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the dam, of course,"

"Of course, the dam. It's, uh, it sprung a leak,"

"It's falling apart," Jake nodded "and the feds won't give us the grant to repair it, so they've opened the spillway. In another six months, there won't be much of a lake. There won't be much of a town, either. But as Federal Wildlife, you already knew that,"

"Exactly," Dean smiled.

A young woman, Andrea Barr, tapped on the door "Sorry, am I interrupting?"

Sam and Dean stood up.

"I can come back later,"

"Gentlemen, this is my daughter," Jake introduced.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Dean," He greeted as he shook her hand.

"Andrea Barr." She said "Hi,"

"Hi,"

"They're from the Wildlife Service. About the lake," Jake explained.

"Oh,"

A boy, Lucas Barr, walked in around Andrea.

Dean felt a slight shift in temperature at the boy's entrance and knew something had gotten Rae's attention or in this case...someone.