CONTAINS SEASON 8 SPOILERS

This story doesn't necessarily occur within the Supernatural timeline. It could be considered part of an alternate season 9 where Sam recovered from the trials fine and Cas kept Metatron from screwing Heaven over so the angels never fell (and Cas didn't become human).

…

Chapter 1:

The Case

…

It should have been an easy job. But then, nearly every job the Winchesters worked seemed to be more complicated than it looked. Usually, though, they come out winners.

Not this time.

It was in a small town just outside San Diego, California. Sam and Dean had been tracking some demon activity with Cas' help. After dispatching a particularly violent group of demons, they went back to their hotel room to get a decent night of sleep and to find another case.

Dean was cleaning various pieces of weaponry which had been neglected recently while Sam was doing the researching, as usual. Since Cas didn't have anything to do, he helped with the research by going through the obituaries in various San Diego newspapers.

It took less than ten minutes to find a case.

"I believe I've found something," Cas said mildly. "On Tuesday, a police officer died of blood loss from what appeared to be a paper-cut."

"Anything else?" Dean asked.

Cas shook his head. "Nothing of importance."

"I'll check online- see if any other weird things have gone down recently."

After a few minutes more, Sam said, "I don't see any other bodies here, but two other towns nearby have had weird deaths in the past week. Last Wednesday, a high school kid died when an unscheduled train hit him while he was crossing the tracks. And then, on Friday, a woman died while getting an X-ray because the radiation went out of control and burned her."

"Sound witchy," Dean remarked.

"Definitely," Sam agreed. "Let's check it out."

…

After a couple days, Sam and Dean still had almost nothing to go on. The policeman was a great, upstanding citizen, and he did his job well. The woman was a dentist with a husband and a few kids. The teen had normal parents, normal friends, normal everything. There was no link between the three at all, and no motive.

"Maybe our witch is just bored. I mean, witches can get bored, right?"

"Yeah, but even then they have a system for choosing the vics," Sam told him.

"I don't know, man. It's just not adding up. Maybe it's more than one?"

Sam shook his head, "I don't think so. The hex bags we found looked pretty identical."

Dean groaned, "Well we have to do something!"

"We could visit the houses of the deceased," Cas suggested.

"We did that already, Cas," Dean told him irritably.

"Yes, but did you check their vehicles?"

"Their… why would we check their cars? I mean, they all shared their cars with their family, so there's no way anything would be in there."

Cas shrugged, "People often hide their deepest secrets in places no one would think to look."

"The best place to hide is I plain sight," muttered Sam. "It's worth a try."

So the trio of hunters, or rather, the duo and an angel, went back to search the victims' cars.

…

Flashing fake F.B.I. badges and reassuring the policeman's wife that they were just doing a routine search, they took the keys and began looking around.

For a while, it seemed Cas was wrong, and that there wasn't anything to find.

But then Dean shouted, "Holy crap! Sammy, you won't believe this!"

"What?"

Dean walked over to Sam and Cas, showing them a plain black lunchbox. "I found this under the passenger's seat."

He tossed it to Sam, who caught it and then asked, "Is there something in it?" When Dean didn't answer, he opened it with a puzzled look.

At first, he couldn't see anything inside, but then his eyes caught on a small tear in the lining. He slid a finger inside the tear, pulling out a Ziplock full of white powder and labeled "Evidence".

"Is this what I think it is?" Sam asked.

"Cocaine. Apparently, our cop friend here was not quite the upstanding citizen we thought he was."

…

They went to the dentist's house next.

After briefly searching the woman's car, they found a cheap phone that had dozens of calls and texts to someone named "Andy."

"Think she was having an affair?" Sam asked.

Dean cleared his throat, "Yeah well, I'm not sure how many interpretations there are for, 'I'm sooo horny-how soon can you be here?' "

Sam wrinkled his nose, "Point taken."

…

Finally, they searched the teen boy's car. However, they weren't quite so lucky with this one.

"There's nothing here," Dean growled, kicking the car in frustration.

Sam shrugged, "The other two had tangible secrets, and they wanted to keep them close-by. Maybe Sean's secret is a little less obvious."

"Well then how do you suppose we-"

"Dean," Cas said suddenly.

Sam and Dean quieted, looking toward Cas.

"Up in the window of that house. There was a girl watching us."

"And?" Dean prompted.

"She was crying. I believe she may have known Sean."

"Ah. Ok. Well then, let's go talk to her."

They walked across the narrow street and up to the door. Before they knocked, Sam said hesitantly, "Maybe you guys should go work more on finding a connection between the policeman and the dentist. It'll only take one of us to talk to the girl and I don't want to overwhelm her."

"Come on!" Dean protested, "I hate research! Why can't I do it? Or Cas, for that matter"

Sam raised an eyebrow. "No offense, but neither of you know how to talk to people."

Dean huffed, "Bitch."

"Jerk," Sam returned.

"You two have a very strange relationship," Cas put in.

Dean rolled his eyes and led Cas away, muttering something about needing pie.

Sam watched them walk off and then stepped up to the door. It took a few moments after he knocked for the girl to respond.

"Can I help you?"

Sam introduced himself and flashed his badge.

"I was hoping you could tell me a little about Sean Peterson," he told her.

"What makes you think I knew him?"

"You were neighbors. I'm sure you talked from time to time."

"Not really."

There was a long pause, and then she said, "We went on a few dates after I moved here freshman year. He was a jerk. And now he's dead, and I hate myself for hating him."

"What did he do that made you hate him so much?" Sam asked.

She didn't answer, and then Sam remembered that they were standing in her doorway. He gestured outside and asked, "Care to sit?"

She followed him and they sat on the steps together.

"You can tell me," Sam said gently. "Whatever it is."

She seemed conflicted but finally said, "Sean didn't respect boundaries. If you didn't give him what he wanted, he took it."

"Did he rape you?" Sam asked quietly.

She didn't answer, and her eyes looked anywhere but at him.

"I'm sorry. I wish there was something I could do."

"Me too."

Sam hesitated for a moment, then asked, "You said that you hate yourself for hating him. What did you mean?"

She looked up with a slight frown. "I hate who he was and… what he did. But everyone's so sad about him being gone that I feel guilty for not being sad, you know? They're all so devastated because he'll never have a future, but I'm honestly relieved because it means he won't hurt anyone else."

After a brief pause, she added, "Does that make me a bad person?"

Sam shook his head, "No. Definitely not."

She smiled a little and he grinned back, "Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it."

She nodded, "Thanks for listening."

…

A/N:

This fic will be nine-ten chapters long. I'll be updating twice a week: on Mondays and Fridays.

Most of it will be the effects of various potions on Sam, Dean, and Cas that the witch (who the guys will encounter in the next chapter) throws on them. It's part humor, part mystery, and part Destiel. Not much action.

I always love getting reviews, so if you have the time, I'd like to hear from you!