Chapter Text
The crime scene was a mess. It was dirty, wet and dark, and everything Dean Winchester wanted to do was go home, crawl under his bed sheet and go back to sleep. There were forensics everywhere, searching for every little detail the murderer might have left in the dead lane. White signs were placed on the ground, marking the little pieces of evidence that hadn't been washed away by the pouring rain already. Flashlights lightened up the ground occasionally, providing Dean with a good view on the trickles of blood mixing with the puddles of water and colouring them red lightly. Dean was too exhausted to really process all the information flooding his brain, all he knew was that the killer had been violent.
The coroner arrived a few minutes later and only stopped at Dean's side for a few seconds. They nodded as a greeting, exchanged a short "Dean" and "Benny", too tired and too tense for anything else. It was the fourth body in two four months and the work this required of them was taking its toll. Dean gripped his coffee tighter, fingers digging into the paper cup and almost crumpling it. He ignored the rain pouring down on him and followed Benny Lafitte as he made his way over to the victim. Benny was his best man, not because he was an outstanding coroner -although he was- but because they could trust and understand each other without a lot of words. Benny was the kind of coroner that didn't just do his work and left the rest to the profilers and psychologist but who really thought about the bigger picture and in this case, this was needed more than anywhere else.
Three victims and they still hadn't got any clue who the murderer might be. They didn't even have a damn profile. There was nothing fitting into pattern besides the choice of location and the young woman sagged against the brick wall was probably not going to give them any more clues. The way she was killed was too different from anything they had seen before in this case. The only thing they would find if it was their guy would be a strand of hair cut off from the back of her head.
That had been what had made them suspicious when the first victim had been found. When they had found the second victim and had recognized the pattern, Dean had been given the lead over the special commission. There had been nothing linking the women besides that they had both found with some of their hair missing, bodies left in dead lanes. Their best shot until now was that the murderer was one of their good old psychopaths. Extremely dangerous, extremely violent and very likely to make a mistake pretty soon. Just because they hadn’t found useful evidence yet this didn’t mean that they wouldn’t in near future.
Benny kneeled down next to the body and placed his equipment next to him. Dean stood there, looked down at the scene and for the first time took the opportunity to really take in the image. The woman had been stabbed several times, blood all over the light, white summer dress she had been wearing. Her blonde hair looked like some kind of dirty and wet halo surrounding her head. She had probably been good looking but the expression of fear and pain distorted her face.
Benny started his first inspection and looked up to the Detective Inspector now and then while he dictated his observation into the microphone fixed at the collar of his shirt. This was another thing Dean liked about Benny. He was not only a professional, he was a perfectionist when it came to saving material. Dictating machines were only mandatory during a proper postmortem examination but he preferred to use them all the time, which made it definitely easier for everyone in the team when it came to securing and sorting out of evidence.
”The victim is a young woman, I estimate between 20 and 30 but we can’t be sure before autopsy or identification. Judging from the blood-pattern she got 5 stab wounds to her chest.” Benny’s deep voice was the only sound Dean could concentrate and reflect on. The rest blurred into a sidetrack sensation in the back of his mind, tapping and scattering and the sound of raindrops hitting the water of already formed puddles.
“I am pretty sure that she died directly of one of the stabs or otherwise there would be much more blood but again we have to wait for the autopsy to say anything with certainty. After all the rain might have washed away most of the mess.”
Dean zoned out, his attention drifted away as Benny estimated the time of death. He would be able to reread the examination reports tomorrow when he wasn’t that tired anymore and hopefully he would find important evidence this time. Striking similarities, same friends, just same something. Anything.
Dean felt as though something was off with the murders, something that he could not quite put his fingers on yet. The others in the commission didn’t share his bad feeling but they still respected it because Dean he had solved cases on the base of mere intuition before. Easier cases, to be honest, but still. His reputation preceded him which was why they had given him this case in the first place. Right now all he wanted to do was curse this reputation.
They were all still of the opinion that the murderer was a psychotic serial killer and there Dean was again, at the same point in his train of thoughts as a few moments ago. His thoughts were running in circles but he held on to this little bit of hope just like he physically held on to the cheap coffee in the wet paper cup. If the murderer was just a psychopath it meant that he was driven by madness, most likely mixed with fury and rage and that again meant that he would make mistakes sooner or later, that they would get enough evidence to catch him.
“Oh, thank God, finally” Benny exclaimed and pulled Dean back into reality.
“What?” Dean directly asked and when the coroner looked up at him, a crooked half-smile was painted on his face.
“She fought”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning she scratched the bastard. There is blood under her fingernails and presumably enough skin to get his DNS.”
Dean let out a sigh of relief, he was just too tired and maybe a bit too realistic to really be joyful about this revelation. It would only help them if the murderer had done something before his current activity that was bad enough to have his DNS registered. No matter how he wished for this to be the case, Dean highly doubted it. He took another sip from his coffee and pulled a face. The liquid had cooled down by now and even in a hot state it had rather been the opposite of delicious. Just one more reminder for Dean why he definitely preferred whiskey.
“Okay, good work, Benny.” Dean said before he turned around to face the street and the rest of the team again. “Good work, everyone. I know it’s late, finish here and then you can go home, we will do the rest tomorrow. Linus, you have the responsibility for a while, I am in my car if someone needs me. I just need a few minutes.”
Linus smiled at him, a facial expression Dean could hardly see through the darkness but he could damn well imagine how it would look like in light. Linus had this kind of smile that made other people smile with him without a second thought, always showing teeth a bit too big and oblique in a way that didn’t make braces necessary but still useful. They also made him look younger than his 27 years and so sympathetic that Dean had liked him immediately. He has also wanted to ruffle his dark-blond/light-brown (Dean was still not sure how to call it) hair which was… well, at least very unlikely for Dean. It might have been connected with the fact that he had been slightly drunk when he had met Linus for the first time. Dean still liked to tell himself that although he knew that it wasn’t quite true. Dean made his way to his ’67 Chevrolet Impala, his private car, and was welcomed by its warmth as he slipped into the driver’s seat. Of course it wasn’t really warm, not with the freezing temperature of a late fall night surrounding it. It was just less cold than outside. He downed the rest of his coffee in one go and decided that it still tasted disgusting. Most of the time he really liked his job but in situations like this he started to question his choice. He knew that these doubts would be forgotten after a sufficient amount of sleep, though.
Dean crumpled the paper cup in one hand and threw it onto the passenger seat. He would have killed anyone else to even attempt doing this but again, the exhaustion had caught him too deeply in its embrace for him to care. He leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes. The raindrops kept falling and made loud noises on the roof of the Impala. However, Dean found a way to ignore them. Soon a light sleep had gotten hold of him and he dozed off.
A knock against the car window woke him up again and after he had brought his sight back into focus, Dean could see Linus smiling a wry smile at him through the glass. After he had scrolled down the window, Dean found himself smiling back. Again.
“What do you need?” Dean asked with a voice that made him sound more tired than he had intended.
“I was wondering if you want to come home with me when we’re finished.” Linus looked down and scraped his feet.
“Wait a second” Dean said, opened the door and got out of the car. He was approximately two inches taller than Linus but Linus wasn’t looking at him anyways. It seemed as though the ground had suddenly become more appealing than Dean.
“I didn’t…I mean” Linus began to stutter. “Just…we don’t need to do anything if you don’t want to. I know that you are tired and that you want to keep this…us… a secret. I understand that. But I know that you have to drive quite far and I live pretty near so I thought you might like to stay over. It’s…”
“Linus” Dean interrupted him.
“Yes.”
“It’s fine. You don’t have to justify yourself. I will see you at your door.” He kept his voice and even his choice of words professional. Maybe everyone else was too far away to eavesdrop but Dean thought ‘better safe than sorry’. He placed his left hand on Linus’ shoulder in a firm but gentle grip. For anyone who would look at them it would seem like a reassuring gesture among colleagues. Except for how Dean let his thumb travel over Linus’ throat, which no-one could see.
“Okay.” Linus replied. “See you, then.” He turned away and went back to the others. Dean could swear to have seen a slight blush creep over the other police man’s cheeks.
Half an hour later the forensics, lead with passion and just the right amount of strictness by Pamela Barnes, started to pack their things. Benny finished and came over to Dean. He looked about as tired as Dean felt but the expression of enjoyed success lightened up his features. The only thing lightening up Dean’s mood was the expectation of a warm bed and a bit of groping under the sheets. Still he smiled at Benny as he said goodbye.
They wished each other a good night and the sparkle in Benny’s eyes seemed as though he knew exactly that Dean wasn’t going to sleep in his own bed this time. He probably did. They knew each other too well, were too good friends outside of their jobs, to really hide stuff like that from each other. He didn’t say anything regarding the topic, though, and Dean had no intention of telling him. Keep your flings a secret, that was the first rule. Homosexuality was reason enough to get kicked out of a job, especially in the police.
No-one would care that he was bisexual to be precisely or that he preferred to separate work and personal life. No-one would care that this affair with Linus did in no way influence their professional relationship and behaviour or that it was all based on consent and that Linus wasn’t pressured into this. There were enough people in the department and beyond it who envied Dean for his reputation that it wouldn’t even matter that he was considered the best on his job in the whole of Kansas.
Benny clapped Dean on the shoulder and returned to supervising the transportation of the corpse before he got into his own car and followed the hearse. Dean knew that he had promised to be the one to attend the autopsy tomorrow but right now asking someone else to do it sounded more than tempting. He waited outside of his car in the slowly fading rain until everyone else had gone and he could see Linus get into his car. Dean slipped into the driver-seat of the Impala again and started the engine. He was wet to the bones and cold and he was definitely going to ask Linus for a hot shower, preferably with Linus in it as well.
Dean pulled into the free parking lot behind Linus’ car. Linus had been right, the fifteen minute drive to his house had really been less stressful than the almost 90 minutes drive out of town to Dean’s. Linus’ place was decent, you couldn’t say anything bad about it, but compared to Dean’s house it seemed mundane. Dean was not one to judge others for having less money than him especially because he knew what it meant to be poor. His childhood hadn’t been the best after all.
Dean climbed out of the Impala and locked it just to be greeted by Linus who wrapped his arms around Dean’s waist and pressed an affectionate kiss to the underside of his jaw.
“Thanks for coming over” Linus mumbled into Dean’s skin. Dean looked down at him and smiled.
“I don’t want to spend the night alone, either. But let’s get inside first, what do you say?”
“Yeah, good idea” Linus said under his breath.
This felt…different. It was different. They had never done something like this before, go home without the direct intention of sex lingering in the air between them. It felt good and allowing himself this kind of luxury was something Dean hadn’t done in a very long time.
The moment they were inside they started stripping off their wet clothes until they were wearing nothing more than their boxers. Dean could see goose bumps spreading over Linus’ skin and knew that his own must look the same. He couldn’t help himself but smiled at how almost vulnerable Linus looked and the thought crossed his mind that he should be thankful that he was let into someone else’s life like this, even if they weren’t together. Not really.
“We should hang up our clothes to dry and then take a shower. Together” Linus stated, stealing the opportunity to once initiate something in this direction from Dean. It also took the rather practical and therefore oddly intimate action of getting out of their clothes back onto a sexual level which was comforting in a way he didn’t fully comprehend.
“You’re speaking my mind” He just replied, shooting one of his infamous smiles at Linus that had just the same effect on him as on everyone else who was attracted to men. Linus practically melted under it.
They took their time under the shower, washing each other, bodies pressed close and open kisses mouthed against the other one’s skin. Their movements were lazy and slow, both too exhausted from fulfilling their duty at such late hours. However, the touches still felt amazing, even if they were both too tired to really get turned on from them, not to speak of actually getting hard. Being together like that was relaxing and gave them an opportunity to shut down everything that was going on in their lives and at work. The hot water poured over their bodies and washed away tension and bitterness alongside with sweat and cold.
Dean knew that having an affair with a colleague, someone in a subordinate position even, was risky business and he probably would have never acted on his attraction to Linus if it hadn’t been him to make the first move and initiate it all.
After showering they fell into Linus’ queen-sized bed, Dean spooning Linus’ naked body with his own, limps entangled and fingers intertwined. Everyone to look at them would be given the impression of a happy couple when in reality they were hardly more than friends with Benefit. Dean had thought about this a lot and decided that it was better if it stayed that way. He wasn’t even sure if he was ready for a new relationship yet but it was nice to know that he had a person to turn to when his nights got too lonely and his bed too empty with only one person in it.
Dean’s breath evened out quickly and sleep got hold of him faster than he was used to. Linus lay awake for much longer and pressed a kiss to Dean’s cheek before he pulled the bed sheets completely over them and snuggled closer against Dean’s bare chest.
The next morning Dean woke up to the smell of fresh coffee and scrambled eggs lingering in the air. He practically fought himself out of the bed and yawned. Then he walked over to the other side of the room. He rubbed a hand through his hair, his eyes were still half closed as he picked one of his boxer-briefs out of Linus’ wardrobe. Staying overnight like this hadn’t been a first time for them after all and they were both prepared for the respectively other to still be there the next morning.
Dean followed the scent into the kitchen as though it was a siren call and somehow it seemed appropriate to him to describe the scent of coffee –good coffee- in the morning this way. Speaking about morning, how late was it, anyway?
Linus was there, standing in front of the stove, eyes fixed on the pan that was the source of at least half of the smell that had motivated Dean to get out of the bed. When he noticed Dean, he turned around with a bright smile. God, his smile.
“Surprise!” Linus laughed and made w wide gesture pointing at the table that was set for two.
“Wow” Dean mumbled, genuinely surprised and strangely moved. He felt a dull pressure on his chest and he knew exactly where it came from but he repressed the memories and shoved them back into the subconscious. There was no way he would let his past darken this rare situation of pure happiness.
Linus pulled the pan from the stove and put the scrambled eggs onto two plates. Dean sat down and watched him, admired the play of his muscles and how the low sitting jeans hugged Linus’ hips and led the focus onto the small curve of his ass. Linus really wasn’t the type you would call handsome or hot at first time but Dean still enjoyed looking at him. A lot.
“What time is it?” Dean asked with a yawn and rubbed a hand over his eyes, trying to chase the tiredness away. It felt amazing to be able to let his guards down like this even in the presence of another person. Right now he was just himself, no mask to wear and no game to play. There weren’t even any expectations to meet because Linus took Dean the way he could get him.
“It’s 10 o’clock, you have to be at the autopsy in two hours. Coroner Lafitte called to tell you that he has to do it earlier in order to not blow up his schedule.”
“You answered my phone?”
“I’m not stupid: He spoke onto your mailbox.”
“Never check my phone again.”
“Why? It’s not like I’m going through your messages or something, I just saw his number and thought it might be important.”
“Just don’t.”
“Okay, I’m sorry”
“Don’t be. It’s fine”
Linus finally sat down across of Dean. His smile had turned shy and the only reconciling gesture Dean offered was pouring coffee into Linus’ cup first.
They ate in silence, the atmosphere between them despite the discussion relaxed. Maybe Dean tried a bit too hard to keep it this way but Linus didn’t notice it. Dean knew that it wasn’t Linus fault, that he had only wanted to help him but Dean couldn’t help the bad feeling gnawing at his guts. Linus looked over to Dean again and again. He tried to ignore it, too afraid of what he might find in Linus’ eyes to meet them. The last night had kind of been a huge step forward and Dean was not quite sure if he was completely comfortable with that.
After they had finished breakfast Dean got dressed, trying to smooth out the wrinkles in his shirt as well as possible. He buttoned his jacket in an attempt to hide the fact that he hadn’t spent the night at home and checked himself in the mirror. Good enough. He looked tired but this was nothing to make others curious, they would all know sooner or later that he had been the one to supervise the investigations about a new victim. If they hadn’t heard it already, Dean would have to tell them.
When he left Linus, Dean noticed an odd expression on the other man’s face and in another situation e probably would have recognized it for what it was. This way he wondered about it for about half a minute and then forgot it as he drove the Impala to the police department, Metallica’s "Holier Than Thou” blasting out of the speakers.
Over the next week, tension ate at Dean’s nerves and he tried his best not to shove his mood into his colleagues’ faces, figuratively. The autopsy had at least given them material to work with but it was still in the lab for analysis and Dean was close to calling them and tell them to give their samples priority although he knew that they already had and that the laboratory’s schedule was even tighter than Benny’s. He wasn’t used to navigating in the dark like this and everyone around him senses how it affected Dean’s self-esteem and made him angry. Not even Linus dared to come too close. However, Dean was positive that a nigh or maybe even just a quickie in the bathroom with Linus would release at least some of the tension.
Maybe it was better this way, though, because it forced Dean to fully focus on his work in order to not get depressed over their lack of progress.
Later that day the lab results came as a much needed relief, or at least it seemed like it at first.
“Son of a bitch” Dean cursed after reading the file and threw the thin folder onto the nearest desk. The two police-men who were bent over a map of Lawrence and tried to once again find any kind of pattern looked up. Meg jumped a bit and came over.
Meg Masters was a brunette woman in her late twenties and easily worth two men when it came to being determined, robust and efficient. Dean didn’t really like her personally but was still glad to have her on his team. She was the one to do most of the interrogations with a success many of her male colleagues and rivals envied her for.
“No luck?” She asked as she stepped closer, her hair swaying with every move.
“Well, we have the DNS.”
“But?”
"But it doesn’t match any of those in the database.”
Dean ran a hand over his mouth clenched his teeth and closed his eyes for a few seconds. Meg stayed silent. They both knew what that meant. Whoever was the murderer, he was either new to criminality on this level or a damn professional who knew how to stay away from the police and never leave enough evidence to get caught. People with violent tendencies often were noticed by the police before they actually killed someone and then left DNS-material everywhere, making it easy to find out who they were. Having no clue whatsoever to who the killer might be was a situation no-one at the police usually had to face on an every-day basis, which pretty much made this a complicated situation for all of them.
Dean felt a bad feeling creep up in his stomach and suddenly he felt sick. He still didn’t say anything, there was no reason to alarm people as long as it was just his intuition telling him to be careful.
“So, what do we do?” Meg asked and Dean could hear how much she hated the idea of having to wait for Dean to make decisions. Dean on the other hand liked it. Very much.
“Now we have to wait again” He breathed out heavily and internally braced himself for another abortive team meeting.
Two more weeks passed by without major incidents. They had finally gotten results for all of the samples Benny had sent to the laboratory but everything they had found out was that the guy had apparently used a common kitchen knife to kill the young woman, nothing to get them any closer to solving this goddamn case.
Dean felt restless even in his own house but being at the department where anyone could see how his walls were wearing thin wasn’t an option. When he was honest to himself he felt helpless and even a bit lost. He needed someone to talk to about this, needed someone to hold on. Dean knew all of those things but admitting it was still something he wasn’t even close to. Admitting it would mean tearing at old wounds that still weren’t fully healed. However, he had survived the last three years, he could go on for longer.
He sat on the table in the dining room, one of the luxuries of a house that had in fact had been too big in the first place, even for two people. The hallway alone was huge, giving access to stairs that lead up to the bedroom with its king-sized bed and a nowadays only half-filled closet. Bathroom and Dean’s home-office were located on the second floor as well. Dean hardly used the latter, though, since there was no-one to be at home for. Not anymore.
The phone rang, pulling Dean out of his thoughts and back into reality. It took him a few seconds to recognize the noise as the ringtone of his cell. It wasn’t even late afternoon and he expected a call from Benny, anyways. It was probably work-related and Dean therefore didn’t check the caller-ID before answering.
“Dean Winchester here” He accepted the call and was more than just a bit surprised to not be greeted by the deep and strangely melodious voice of the coroner.
“Hey Dean, it’ Linus.” Linus sounded hectic, almost frantic and Dean wondered what had happened.
“Hey Linus, I wanted to call you anyways. Is something wrong?”
“They found another victim.”
Dean felt like something heavy had just fallen into his stomach. “Where?”
“Doesn’t matter. She was still alive when they found her. She is in hospital now. The doctors say she can be asked a few questions if we do it gently. “
“Great” Dean replied, his voice mixture of hopeful and bitter. He really wasn’t sure how to feel about this. On the one hand whatever the woman might have to say could give them the first real hint to the killer’s identity. On the other hand Linus hadn’t said that she was over the worst which could only mean that she wasn’t and that again led to the possibility of another young and very dead woman to add to the cases folders.
“Where do you need me to be and when?” Dean asked, already starting to get ready for leaving.
“I don’t think you should come.”
“What? Why?”
“It’s Jo.”