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They’re in a small town in Massachusetts, and Sam and Dean are both stumped. There’s a spirit wreaking havoc upon the townspeople, and the six victims have no apparent connection. Sam has been doing research for a straight week and Dean’s getting stir crazy.
Dean is driving back from the local burger joint when Sam calls him.
“Dean, you need to meet me at the beach right now.” Sam says, in lieu of a proper greeting.
Dean grins around the fries he has in his mouth. “I mean, I’d love to come and check out the beach babes but you know we’re in the middle of a case right now, and me ‘n Cas don’t even have our swimming trunks on!”
Dean can practically hear Sam’s bitchface through the phone.
“Dean.” Sam grits. “Stop being an ass and get down to the beach. There’s been another attack.” Sam hangs up, and Dean sends a ‘what are you gonna do?’ look towards Cas, who’s sitting next to him.
“Guess we’re goin’ to the beach.” Dean tells him, before making a sharp u-turn on the almost deserted road. It’s almost eleven at night, and the streets are barren except for a few drunks and people getting food like Dean and Cas.
“Did Sam say what happened?”
“Nah,” Dean pops a few more fries in his mouth, “It’s the same thing as what we’ve been hunting, I’m tellin’ ya.”
Cas frowns. “This is the seventh victim.” He states. Dean knows that Cas is feeling bad that they haven’t gotten rid of the ghost yet, and that there’s been four more deaths since they’ve arrived, but there’s not much he can do to help the angel. It sucks to Dean, too, but they both know that hunting isn’t the happiest job around.
“Hopefully the last.” Dean sighs. The last one had been a seventeen year old girl, killed by the spirit at her girlfriend’s house. It had hit Dean especially hard. “You got any ideas what it is?”
Cas rubs a hand down his face, shrugging his shoulders slightly. “All I know is that it’s some sort of angry spirit. Seeking revenge, maybe? Avengement? There must be something specific about the victims that we’re not seeing.”
Dean agrees. It seemed as though the spirit was only going after a few people, like the girl a few days ago- but the spirit apparently didn’t even look twice at her girlfriend, or the man killed in the middle of the grocery store last week. The spirit had left as soon as the man’s blood had hit the floor.
Dean pulls into the beach parking lot, and he can see a cop car, as well as Sam in his fed suit down on the beach. “Maybe we’ll find out something new here.” Dean says, and he hopes it’s true. They can’t afford to reach another dead end with this case.
Cas nods, and they both get out of the car, making sure to grab their fake ID’s before heading down the sandy path down to where Sam is standing. Once Sam’s spots them, he comes loping over.
“There was a witness.” He opens with, nodding his head over to a man that’s standing with the sheriff. “Todd Cranes. Says he saw the vic walking his dog, and out of nowhere this ‘ghost looking dude’” Sam does air quotes as he says it. “Comes and attacks him. Cranes apparently tried to help him, but it was too late. Says the ghost looked at him once before disappearing again.”
“What about the victim?” Cas asks. “Was there any link between him and the others?”
Sam frowns for a moment. “There is something that I noticed a few days ago but it’s weird. I don’t know if it means anything-”
“How weird?” Dean asks.
“The victims were all bisexual, apparently.” Sam tells them, and Dean makes a weird noise in his throat but doesn’t say anything, allowing Sam to continue. “Like the last vic, Maddison? She was at her girlfriends house, right, and it turns out her girlfriend was a lesbian, not bisexual, which is why the ghost didn’t go after her, too. The same with Todd and this guy.”
“So the spirit is targeting people who are sexually attracted to both male and females?” Cas asks, and Sam nods. “That is strange. What do you think, Dean?”
Dean looks surprised at Cas’ question, and his mouth opens and closes a few times like a fish, as he tries to figure out what to say. He settles with: “Huh, oh, yeah- strange. Yeah, it’s um, strange. Yeah. Sure is uh, weird.”
Sam gives Dean the look, the look that says ‘I see that you’re acting weirdly but I don’t know why but just so you know I’m onto you’, and Dean’s heart flutters in his chest.
“Should we go and research?” Cas asks.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea-” Sam agrees, but is cut off by Dean.
“I’m uh- gonna stay here and talk to the cops and the witness for a bit,” He announces, his eyes looking pointedly away from Cas and Sam. “Why don’t you guys start the research while I’m at it?” Dean tosses the impala keys to Cas, who catches them with ease even though there’s a hesitant look on his face.
Dean wonders if it’s because Cas knows, somehow, and that he’s worried the spirit will come back for Dean.
Sam just nods anyway, though, and begins to walk back to the impala. Cas gives Dean one last look before going after Sam, and Dean lets out the breath he’d been holding since Sam said the word bisexual.
Dean walks over to where the others are: the witness, the sheriff and the deputy.
And, of course the deputy is hot and Dean’s mouth immediately goes dry because really? Does this have to happen today of all days? Dean wonders if all cute guys just decide to become deputies, or if Dean thinks that guys are cute because they’re deputies, because he swears he’s been in this situation before, several times. Like with the guy in Hibbing, which Dean ended up having sex with in the back of the car, handcuffs definitely involved.
“Sheriff, Deputy.” Dean nods when he gets there, and they both greet him in return. Dean pointedly ignores the way the deputy gives him a once-over.
It was going to be a long night.
♂♀
Dean gets back to the motel the next morning, after having decided to avoid Cas and Sam for the fear of them noticing how weird Dean is being about the whole bisexuality thing. Dean knows that he should probably tell them, because then they could use Dean as bait, but Dean can’t make himself do it.
“Where have you been, man?” Sam asks him, angrily, when Dean walks through the door. Sam and Cas seem like they’ve been up for hours, empty coffee cups and research papers everywhere, Sam’s laptop in the middle of the ruckus.
“I had to stay with the deputy,” Dean tells them, shrugging off his jacket. “Turns out he swung both ways, didn’t want him to be alone if the spirit showed up.”
Sam and Cas share a look, and Dean immediately regrets that he didn’t stay out for longer, or at least come up with a less gay excuse as to why he’s been out all night. Thankfully, though, neither Sam nor Cas ask anymore questions about it.
“Anyway…” Sam says slowly, before gesturing to Dean to come closer. “Look at what we found out. At first we thought it was just an angry ghost, maybe someone who’s partner left them that was bisexual, or just some bigot that died and wanted to continue being a jackass in the afterlife, too.”
“But?” Dean presses.
“But it turns out there was something we were missing at all the scenes. This.” Sam holds up a bag of a pearly white powder, glistening in the light. “Cas was the one who realised. Turns out this only appears when it’s a witch that’s using a spirit to do their dirty work. Black magic, but we found a simple enough reverse spell. We just gotta figure out when the spirit is gonna strike next, and then try to find who’s controlling it.
“So it’s kinda like that faith healer dude that was using reapers to save people?”
“Yeah, kinda.” Sam agrees. “The spell calls for close proximity, so whoever is controlling this thing will be close enough for us to find them.”
“The tricky part will be knowing where to look for the spirit.” Cas muses, a frown on his face. “Is there anyway to detect bisexuals?”
Sam almost laughs at the question, but shakes his head. “Dean actually just gave me an idea- we stick with the deputy. Spirit will show up at some point, right?”
The plan was weak at best, but it’s all they can do. “Alright. I will go and collect the ingredients for the counter spell, you two go to the deputy’s house.” Cas says, and before Dean and Sam can say holy bisexuality, Cas is gone.
“Deputy, huh?” Sam asks, a knowing look on his face, as he gathers up the things he’ll need to take with him.
“Shut your face.” Dean tells him.
♂♀
Dean and Sam never make it to the deputy’s house, because the spirit apparently decides to attack sooner- and on a completely different victim.
Dean.
They’re in the parking lot of a diner, after having just picked up some food to take with them, when there’s a loud crackling noise, and suddenly the spirit is right in front of them.
“Shit, shit shit shit.” Dean mutters, as the spirit floats right by Sam and goes after Dean. Sure didn’t picture this way of coming out to Sam, Dean thinks.
Dean can hear Sam yelling for Cas somewhere behind the spirit, but Dean is more focused on the blood red eyes of the spirit focused right on him. Dean took the chance and sprinted over to the impala and yanking the trunk open, before grabbing the salt gun.
He shoots the spirit with a salt round, but it doesn’t do anything.
“A little help would be nice, Sam!” Dean yells, as he runs around the other side of the car away from the spirit. Apparently this wasn’t like a normal ghost if salt didn’t work. Dean looks around for Sam, but can’t see him anywhere. “Son of a bitch.”
The spirit is coming closer, almost at a leisurely pace, as though it knows it’s going to catch Dean. Dean tries to figure out whether he should try running away or if that will cause the spirit to try and come after him even faster, like a bear or something.
Dean strides back around to the trunk and quickly pulls out an iron crowbar, hoping that it will work. He holds it in front of himself, waving it at the spirit. “Here, ghosty ghosty ghosty.” Dean taunts.
Suddenly, the spirit is dashing towards him, it’s body going through the bar and pushing Dean backwards with the force of a pick-up truck. It hovers over him, ready to strike, but then explodes. White, pearly powder rains down on Dean, as though he’d been on a donut binge.
Dean gets up, patting himself down, wondering what the hell had just happened.
“Dean, are you okay?” Comes Cas’ concerned voice, and Dean whirls around to see both Cas and Sam looking at him.
“Feels like I just got hit by a car but yeah, I’m fine.” Dean replies. “What the hell was that?”
“We killed the guy that was doing it.” Sam tells him, gesturing to behind the diner where there was a dark alcove. “Apparently he had a girlfriend that left him for another girl. Jerk was angry about it, so he decided to target every bisexual in town.”
“And me.” Dean says.
“I think you were included in the every bisexual in town part, Dean.” Cas frowns.
“Right.” Dean runs a hand through his hair. Sam and Cas don’t appear to be shocked, or surprised, or digusted at the fact that they’d just found out Dean is bisexual.
Sam, apparently, can read his mind. “Dean, if you think this is the first time we’re figuring it out then you’re blind.”
“Right.” Dean repeats.
“I mean, you obviously had a crush on Dr Sexy, and you were totally disappointed when Aaron said you didn’t have a gay thing, and I mean, I do know how to access internet history, and then there was-”
“Alright, Sam, jeez!
No one mentions it again, but Dean can't deny that it feels amazing to be out of the closet.