Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing with Kripke's toys.

Spoilers: none

Summery: She had Dean Winchester in cuffs and she let him just walk out of the Sheriff's department. With a kidnapped kid in his arms.

Think Of The Children

Sheriff Jennifer – or Jen to her friends – Murray sits in her office a cold cup of forgotten coffee next to the framed picture of her daughter Emily, to which she glances once in a while just to make sure it's still there, and re-watches the footage of the interrogation she did three nights before. By now she knows it by heart but can't stop watching it. Damn. She had him. She had this fucker and let him escape. With a kidnapped child. With a goddamn kid.

"Do you often take your five-year-old to a graveyard at two in the morning, Ted?" She hears herself asking. The man had claimed to be Ted Logan and at that point of time she had no reason to think otherwise. Now she knows better. With a sigh she takes a sip from her cold coffee.

"We were at some friends." Ted answered. "I tucked Billy in in the guestroom around seven. When I carried him home he woke up. The way through the graveyard is a shortcut, I wanted him in his own bed as soon as possible." Bullshit, she had thought then and she thinks now. Ted just smiled at her. At some point he was even flirting with her. Jen shudders in disgust by that memory.

"And that ritual stuff?" She kept her voice even but she had the mental image of the kid in her head. Knowing what she knows now it is even more disturbing.

"Some teenagers. They ran off when we came near." Ted shrugged not bothered by his hands cuffed to the table.

"There was blood in that bowl, along with some herbs. And Billy has a fresh cut on his forearm."

"Boys will be boys. The kids played tag and Billy tripped." Another shrug. "Some of that gravel has some sharp edges. Don't know about the stuff in the graveyard."

Jen stops the video at the point where she left the room to let Ted stew for a bit. One click and she has the file of Dean Winchester on the screen. Hours after they got a match for the fingerprints the FBI was all over the place. Jen had a very unpleasant conversation with the new boss in town, a Special Agent Henriksen. The only reason the Sheriff's department isn't out of this case is little Billy. They have to find the kid as soon as possible. And as alive as possible, she adds in her head.

From the pictures of the crime scenes in St. Louis she glances to the picture of Emily smiling at her. Jen has already the phone in hand, her thumb on the speed dial, before she realizes what she's doing. With a sigh she lets go of the phone. She called half an hour ago. And almost every hour before that. Emily is in her bed and the babysitter is doing her job. Everything is fine. Except for little Billy. He is out there, dragged along by a psychopath. Maybe already killed in a satanic ritual.

Another click and Jen watches another footage. The time code in the corner is the same as in the other one. While she was with Ted – or Dean Winchester – Rose, the paramedic, took care of little Billy. After she took pictures of the wound she cleaned the cut. During that she asked the boy the necessary questions.

"Are you hurt anywhere else?" She asked in a gentle voice kids usually respond to. In most cases she doesn't have to say more than "Don't cry, we'll find your parents". But this is different. This is worse.

Every piece of evidence from the graveyard and everything they found in the department – mainly the cuffs they used on Dean and the soda can Billy drank from – is in the lab and not only Jen waits for the results. For one conclusion she doesn't need the results. There was blood on the knife and fingerprints. Tiny prints. The bastard didn't just cut the poor kid, he forced him to do it himself. Another glance toward Emily's picture but then she turns her attention back on the screen.

The boy shook his head to indicate he wasn't hurt but flinched away when Rose tried to stroke his hair. Not a good sign. Jen doesn't have to have a diploma to know that much. And she doesn't want to think about the things it implies. Billy was five years old, for god's sake.

"Do you know your last name, Billy?" Rose asked.

"Logan." The boy answered without hesitation so it probably is his real name and Winchester just changed his to match it. Known as a lady's man it isn't outside the realm of possibility that Billy is Dean's son. However there is no missing Billy Logan in the state. His face was in the news and in the paper this morning and nobody seems to miss him. Nobody has seen him since he was carried out of the Sheriff's department. Considering that the Winchesters basically live on the road – according to the FBI file there has to be the brother, Sam Winchester, around somewhere – Dean maybe picked Billy up three states over and is now on the other side of the country. With Billy. Or not and the they'll find the body in some ditch anytime soon. Jen doesn't know what is worse. She wants to find him alive and well, on the other hand she prays to god that the boy doesn't have to suffer.

On the screen Billy had trouble keeping his head up and his eyes open – it had been nearly four in the morning by then – so Rose made him comfortable on a couch and tucked him in with a blanket. He was fast asleep before she was done. Or so it seemed.

Jen sees Rose leaving the room and as soon as the door closed behind her the boy was on his feet. He peeked out of the door and then left the room.

Jen stands up and turns to the window. It's dark outside and she should be home by now. Giving her Emily a good-night-kiss and just being there. But little Billy was still out there. And it was her fault. She had Dean Winchester in cuffs and she let him just walk out. With a kidnapped kid in his arms. She blinks away the tears.

After a few minutes she returns to the computer and opens the first footage again. Dean Winchester in the interrogation room. This is where it gets weird.

She re-watches the scene when Billy came into the room and shoved something into Dean's cuffed hands. Seconds later the hands weren't cuffed anymore.

What she doesn't get is the why. Why should Billy help his kidnapper to escape? The only reason she can think of is that they really are father and son. Or this is some kind of Stockholm-Syndrome but she has no idea if it works this way outside of Hollywood.

"What took you so long?" Dean asked.

"That paramedic was like a dog with a bone. What's your name? Do you know where you life? Did that evil man hurt you?" He snorted and raised a hand thumb and forefinger barely apart. "She was that close to pulling out that show-me-where-he-touched-you-doll."

Dean snickered. "OK, let's get outa here, we have a ritual to perform."

"Yeah, I really don't want to stay like this till the next full moon."

"I don't know, I kinda like it. You being smaller than me."

"Jerk." Out of the mouth of a five-year-old it sounded strange. Dean however just smirked.

"Bitch." He picked Billy up who made a face but didn't flinch. "Let's get this show on the road."

"What happens from now till we are out of here? We will never speak of it again. Ever. Understand?" The boy glared at the man.

"Whatever you say, princess."

With a nod Billy accepted that and slung his arms around Dean's neck and snuggled against his chest. Like that they left the room.

Jen stops the video and leans back. It doesn't add up. This conversation is without a doubt the strangest she has ever heard. According to his file Dean Winchester is a charming man who can hide his violent side quite well. But he has forced little Billy to cut himself, that should taint their interactions. However she sees no fear or hesitation in the interaction between the man and the child. The way Billy relaxed into Dean's chest speaks of absolute trust.

Jen has no video to show what happened after they left the interrogation room but she doesn't need one. Dean carried "asleep" Billy right out of the front door. O'Connell even hold the door open for him. The poor man is suspended by now and hasn't left the bottom of a bottle since then. Jen sighs. She wouldn't mind to join him – this was as much her fault as it was his – but they have to find Billy first.

Again she has the phone in hand. But before she can hit the button a knock on the door catches her attention.

"Sheriff?"

"Gus, please tell me you got the analysis done." Without the results she can't do anything useful. Her deputies are out there along with FBI agents chasing every lead they can find but so far nothing.

Gus nods and closes the door behind him. A pack of paper lands on her desk.

"The blood from the bowl with the burned herbs – weird stuff by the way – and the saliva from the soda can belong to the same person." He tries to keep his voice even, just telling the facts, but Jen hears the emotions behind.

"So he did force Billy to cut himself." She guessed that much but you can always hope to be wrong, right?

"Looks like."

"Is Billy his kid?" Please say no, please say no.

"No, not his." Thank god. "But they are related. Close, maybe brothers."

"So, old daddy Winchester came around a lot." Jen chews at her bottom lip. It doesn't really change anything. It isn't Billy's fault who his father is. Where his mother is is a completely different mystery. Maybe dead. Killed by one of the Winchester clan. Anther path she doesn't allow her thoughts to travel.

"I don't think so." Gus shifts from one foot to the other. "Billy's prints are in the database."

"We have a five-year-old in there?" Jen asked.

"I checked it three times. Every time with the same result." He looks miserable. "Then I waited for the DNA analysis. It doesn't make sense." He flips through the papers and shoves a page into her hands. "Make out of that what ever you will. I have no idea."

"Gus, what are you trying to tell me?"

"The kid's name isn't Billy Logan." He takes a deep breath. "The prints and the DNA belong to Samuel Winchester, born '83 in Lawrence, Kansas."

Jen blinks. Slowly the words sink into her mind. "That's impossible. The evidence must have been contaminated somehow. Maybe Sam Winchester was at the graveyard ..." She is interrupted by Gus shaking his head.

"The graveyard, yeah, maybe. But not the soda can. Like I said, I checked it over and over again." He spreads his hands in a helpless gesture.

Behind her eyes Jen feels the throbbing of a beginning headache. She pinches the bridge of her nose. There is still a kid out there. Maybe his name is Billy or Sam or whatever but he is out there. And she needs to find him. But like this she can't do any good, her thoughts are running in circles and she can't make any sense out of the information she just got. She needs a break.

"OK, you know what?" She shoves the pack of paper back into Gus' arms. "Take this to the FBI guy, it's his case after all. I'm going home. I want to check on Emily."

With that she grabs her jacket and leaves a stunned Gus behind. Maybe in the morning she will figure this out. Maybe tomorrow she'll find the kid. Now she just wants to see her daughter.