American Girl

05. Advanced Thanatology

BUNKER KITCHEN

Dean was making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Ainsley was sipping her heavily sugared coffee. Sam entered the kitchen.

"Hey," Sam greeted.

"Hey," Dean and Ainsley repeated.

"PB&J for breakfast? Strong work."

"Yep," Dean replied.

"You want a beer with that?"

"I'm cool?" Dean glanced at his daughter with a frown.

"Come on, live a little. Here." He placed bottle of beer from fridge in front of Dean.

"What's going on with you?"

"What do you mean?" Sam paused awkwardly. "Anyway, check this out. I think I found something." He placed iPad showing police report in front of Dean and Ainsley. "Three days ago, kid named Shawn Raider was found wandering the side of the road near Grand Junction, Colorado, bleeding from the head. Best friend was missing. And get this – only word he said? "Monster.""

"Okay. Well, that sounds like something," Dean noted.

"Yeah. So I thought we'd check it out, all three of us."

"What about Jack?" Ainsley asked.

"He's uh, he's catching up on all of my old fantasy DVDs – Red Sonja, Beastmaster, uh, Beastmaster II – you know, with the time traveling ferrets."

"Yeah. Wow, how you ever got laid, I'll never know," Dean commented.

"Yeah, tell me about it. So I was thinking we'd leave Jack behind," Sam said.

"Really?"

"Yeah. We'll put up some extra warding. He'll be fine. I mean, when's the last time we worked a case, just the two of us? I figured Ainsley could join, get to see how we work together."

"It's been a while."

"Exactly. So?"

Dean nodded approvingly.

---

The Impala pulled up to the curb in front of a house. Sam, Ainsley and Dean exited the car dressed in Fed threads, which Ainsley had protested to, but eventually relented. Sam handed Dean and Ainsley a badge.

"Here," Sam said.

Dean opened it and checked the name. "Agent Page? I thought you always liked to be Agent Page."

"Yeah, well, changing it up."

They knocked on the door and it was answered by Penny Raider, Shawn's mother. "May I help you?"

"Yeah, sorry to bother you ma'am." Dean said as they showed their badges. "Agents Page, Plant and Mitchell. FBI. Mitchell is a rookie."

"We're here to follow up on the incident with your son," Sam explained.

"Well, the police have already been here. Shouldn't you talk to them?" Penny asked.

"We did, but we'd like to talk with you as well. And Shawn," Ainsley told her.

Penny shifted back and forth nervously.

"Something wrong?" Dean wondered.

"Shawn, he... won't talk. He can't," Penny said.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"The doctors say... he's okay physically, that it's psychological. You know, trauma, like he... he... saw some – saw something so... awful. God I don't even know what he was doing out that late."