Down the Rabbit Hole

The Queens Croquet Ground Part 1

With a roar the beast charged, It flew across the grass with alarming speed.
"Jeez." Sam said watching it go.
"So what do you think?" Dean asked turning to Lacey. She grinned.
"This is amazing."
"Where to next?" Dean asked as Lacey opened up the map.
"Well we've seen the lions, the hippos, the giraffes and the llamas... how about the meerkats?" She asked excitedly.
"Lead the way." Sam told her. They headed over to the meerkat enclosure. As they approached the little creatures came leaping forward to greet them.
"Oooh! They're so cute!" Lacey exclaimed, watching them wide eyed.
"They're not so bad." dean admitted.
"Do you think anyone would notice if I phased one out and took it with me?" Lacey asked Dean conspiratorially. He couldn't help but smile.
"I think they might notice."
"Pity." She shrugged winking at him, Just them his phone went off. He nodded at the two of them before wandering off to answer it. It was Bobby telling him he had a case for them. Dean got the details from him before heading back to Sam and Lacey who had got popsicles from one of the stalls.
"Sorry Lacey gonna have to cut this trip short, Bobby's got a case for us."
"That's OK." She replied.
Sam and Dean held up their CDC badges to the nurse. She looked at them suspiciously.
"You expect me to believe you're CDC?" She asked.
"Excuse me?" Sam asked.
"It's just that you're a day early. First time in history I haven't sat on my ass waiting for you people."
"New Administration. A change you can believe in."
"Right." Lacey followed them down to the morgue. The nurse pulled one of the trays out of the freezer. "Meet Xavier. Date of birth April third 1984." They stared down at the corpse of a man who looked like he was in his eighties. "I know. I ran the DNA twice. That's definitely him."
"Well he wasn't big on the sunscreen huh?"
"So what's your theory?"
"All I know is decedents male, twenty five years old and he died of old age."
"They had a couple more leads to check out so they headed over to the house of one of the people who had gone missing from the town. They were sat around the living room of an old woman whose husband was missing.
"That's the most recent." She said as she passed around a frame with a photo of her husband in.
"How long has he been missing?" Sam asked.
"Oh I knew right away when he didn't come home Tuesday night."
"Is there some place he likes to go after work maybe? A favourite bar?" Dean asked.
"No." Mrs Whitlow laughed. "Tuesdays he always works a bit late, but he always comes straight home."
Dean had rifled through the Whitlows office and had found a clue to where they might find Cliff.
"Well at least he's consistent. Same room every Tuesday, hourly rates." Sam said as they walked down the hallway of the brothel. Lacey rolled her eyes.
"I'm not even going to ask."
"Hope I got that kind of kick when I'm his age."
"Yeah like either of us will live that long."
"True." Dean admitted.
"So what do you think's in there?" Sam asked as they approached the room.
"A wrinkly gooey corpse." Sam took his lock picking kit out of his pocket and began working on the lock.
"Oh god! Oh god! Oh god!" A mans voice shouted from within the room. Sam and Dean looked at each other before slamming the door open and charging inside.
"What the..." The mans voice sounded surprised. Lacey walked in behind them. A man and a woman were under the covers of the bed.
"Oh." Sam said embarrassed.
"God." Dean added. Another woman appeared from under the covers.
"No kidding." Lacey said shielding her eyes and backing out of the room.
"Well it's gooey." Sam reasoned.
"Sorry got the wrong room." Dean said moving to close the door behind them.
"Hey." Sam said stopping him. "Nice tattoo." Sam came back into the room. "Happen to know anybody named Cliff Whitlow?"
"Never heard of him." The guy said looking shifty.
"Well that's weird." Sam said as he picked up a wallet on the dresser and flipped through it. "Cause you're carrying his wallet." Dean walked over to the bed and pulled up the covers.
"Huh. Your wife told us about your uh, birth mark there. That's nice. Well you look great Cliff. Did you get some work done?" The guy sighed.
"Could you give us some privacy?"
The guy got dressed and got rid of the women before turning back to them.
"Please don't tell my wife."
"Slow down."
"I'm begging you. As far as she knows, I'm dead. For the love of god lets keep it that way."
"How can you possibly be Cliff Whitlow?"
"I can't tell you."
"Well either you tell us or we tell the missus." Dean told him.
"Okay! Okay! It was a game."
"Like...Xbox?" Sam asked confused.
"What's Xbox? No. Poker. High stakes. Instead of cash, you play for years."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Dean asked.
"Look I know it sounds crazy. Guy comes up to me at a bar, invites me to play. Gives me twenty five of these weirdo poker chips, right? Chants some mumbo humbo over them, says now they're twenty five years. I'm laughing but then I come out up. And look at me."
"What was he chanting?" Sam asked.
"How should I Know?" Cliff laughed. "All I know is my bad hip's good, I threw away my glasses. One of those ladies was here for free! Man's some kind of miracle worker."
"What does this miracle worker look like?"
"Just a guy. Maybe thirty five, brown hair, Irish accent. His name was Patrick."
"all right, all right, where's this game at?"
"He said he likes to keep moving. Never stays in one bar long. And he finds you."
"Thank you Cliff." Dean said and they headed towards the door to leave.
"Hey." Cliff said putting his hand on Laceys arm as she passed. "If you ever wanna hook up some time." He smiled leeringly at her. She stared back at him blankly for a moment before her cheeks turned red and she started to stammer.
"I uh... oh umm..." Before Dean stepped in to save her.
"Come on sweetheart we better get going." He said as he put an arm around her shoulder and kissed her on top of the head before leading her towards the door.
"Thanks." She said as they closed the door behind them. Sam was already striding away down the hall.
"No problem, he was a bit of a creep."
"Sweetheart?" She asked looking up at him questioningly. He raised his hands.
"You gonna beat me up for that?" He asked jokingly. She smiled widely at him.
"No. I liked it." She replied, slotting her arm through his as they followed after Sam. Dean pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket and dialed Bobbys number.

They had decided to split up to look for the poker game. Lacey had gone with Sam and they had hit about seven bars but had, had no luck. They had picked up some food and were heading back to the motel to meet up with Dean. They headed down the hallway towards their room. Sam glanced down at Lacey.
"So ... um you and Dean seem to have gotten pretty close lately huh?" She smiled.
"Yeah I guess so. He's taken care of me." She shrugged her shoulders. They opened the door and Sam called out;
"Hey Dean? You find anything?"
"Oh you might say." Came a voice from within the room. Not recognizing the voice Sam drew his gun and an old man emerged from the bathroom wearing a robe. Lacey let out a shriek and dropped what she was carrying.
"Who the hell are you?" Sam asked.
"Dude, relax. It's me." Sam lowered his gun and stared at him.
"Dean?" Lacey stared at him in shock.
"Hi."
"What the hell happened?"
"I, you know... found the game." Dean moved forward and picked up one of the burgers from the tray.
"Your... I thought you said you were good at poker?"
"I am. Shut up. So you were just gonna shoot some old guy? Is that it?"
"I didn't know what you were. I mean have you seen you? You look like..."
"The old chick in Titanic. I know. Shut up."
"I was going to say Emperor Palpatine." At this point the door opened and Bobby wheeled in.
"I see you've met John McCain there."
"Yeah either of you want to tell me what happened?"
"Bobby's an idiot that's what happened."
"Hey nobody asked you to play."
"Right. I should have just let you die."
"And for damn sure nobody asked you to lose." Bobby argued. Sam grinned.
"It's like grumpy old men."
"Shut up Sam!" They both said in unison. Sam turned to Lacey who was still staring in shock.
"You OK Lacey?" She continued to stare but nodded her head.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Dean continued the argument. "He's a witch. He's been playing poker since guys wore tights."
"You just don't get it." Bobby told him.
"Yeah I get it Bobby. You saw a chance to turn the hands of the clock back and get out of that damn chair. Pretty tempting. I can imagine."
"No, you can't."
"You got me. I never been paralyzed. But I tell you something, I've been to hell and there's an archangel there wanting me to drop the soap. Look at me. My junks rustier than yours. You hear me bellyaching? Huh?"
"Uh actually yeah." Sam told him. Lacey made a small squeaking sound at the back of her throat and her mouth opened and closed as if she was trying to speak.
"Lacey?" Dean asked taking a step towards her. She seemed to snap out of her trance, squeaked and jumped behind Sam. Dean sighed and sat down eating his burger.
"Oh!" He exclaimed. "I'm having a heart attack!"
"No you're not." Bobby told him.
"What is it?" Dean asked.
"Acid reflux. Guys your age can't digest certain foods. You're gonna need to put down that cheeseburger." Dean sighed and put the burger down.
"So you want to keep emoting or you want to talk about solving this little issue of yours? It's got to be about the chips." Bobby told him.
"I slid 'em across, Patrick did his little witchy number and you prettied up in a hurry."
"I mean what are you all thinking? Some kind of magic chips or something?"
"Definitely." Bobby nodded.
"You remember what he chanted?" Sam asked as he pushed Lacey gently into one of the chairs before sitting down himself.
"Yep. Every word."
"All right then lets find out where he stashes his chips and steal me fifty. Benjamin Button me back into burger shape. What do you think?"
"I think you ought to put some clothes on." Bobby told him.