( LONG DISTANCE CALL )

A cold rain lashes a large comfortable house. A man is in his study. He pours a whiskey and walks back and forth, looking worried. The phone rings and he jerks. He stares at it for a long moment then moves to pick it up. The phone's display shows 'sHA33'.

"Hello." He says.

"Ben." A Woman says on the other line.

"Linda." He responds.

"Ben, I had to talk to you..." Linda starts.

"You can't keep calling here."

"I know. I know, just...just tell me you thought about it please." She says.

"There's nothing to think about."

"Don't say that." Says Linda.

"I can't. You know I can't. My wife..." Ben starts.

"I'm begging you, come to me. Come to me, Ben."

"No." He hangs up. The phone immediately starts ringing again. He picks it up. "Linda. Please. Please leave me alone."

"I'm not going to stop. I miss you, Ben. We could be happy. We could be happy together." Linda says.

"This is...this is crazy."

"I love you! Forever. Don't you love me?" She says.

"You know I do. More than anything. I'm sorry." Ben says.

"Ben, wait..." Ben hangs up. The phone rings again.

He picks up the receiver and slams it back down a number of times, then throws the whole phone across the room, the cord ripping out of the wall. Ben rubs his face and stares at nothing.

After a few moments the phone starts ringing again. Ben looks shattered. He slowly opens the desk draw and takes out a handgun. He stares at it for a few seconds then takes a deep breath.

"Okay, Linda. You win." He stares at the ceiling, then lifts the gun and places the barrel against his throat, pointing upwards. He cocks it. "I'm coming."

Close up of the phone screen spinning through letter and numbers and again landing on SHA33. A gunshot is heard, then the thud of something hitting the ground.

Sam and Elena walk across a city square toward Dean sitting on a bench. "Yep. I got it. Okay, bye." Dean hangs up then in one motion picks up and throws an unopened can of soda to Sam, stands up and shoves the last of the food he is eating into his mouth. "So?" Dean chews.

"So, the professor doesn't know crap." Sam says.

"Shocking. Pack your panties, Sammy, we're hitting the road." Dean says.

"What? What's up?" Sam asks.

"That was Bobby. Some banker guy blew his head off in Ohio and he thinks there's a spirit involved."

"So you two were talking a case?" Sam asks.

"No, we were actually talking about our feelings. And then our favourite boy bands. Yeah, we were talking a case!" Dean yells.

"So a spirit, what?"

"Yeah, the banker was talking about some sort of electrical problems at his pad for like a week." Dean says. "Phone was going haywire, computer was flipping on and off."

"Huh..." Elena says.

"This is not ringing your bell?" Dean asks.

"Well, sure, yeah. But, Dean, we're already on a case." Sam says.

"Whose?" Dean asks.

"Yours."

"Right. Yeah. Well, you coulda fooled me." Dean says.

"What the hell else have we been doing lately other than trying to break your deal?" Sam asks.

"Chasing our tails, that's what. Sam, we've talked to every professor, witch, soothsayer and two bit carny act in the lower 48." Dean says. "Nobody knows squat! And we can't find Bela, we can't find the Colt. So until we actually find something, I'd like to do my job."

"Well there's one thing we haven't tried yet..." Sam starts.

"Sam, no." Elena says.

"We should summon Ruby." Sam suggests.

"I'm not gunna have this fight with you." Dean says.

"She said she knows how to save you." Sam says.

"Well, she can't." Dean says.

"Oh really, you know that for sure?"

"I do." Dean says.

"How?"

"Because she told me, okay!" Dean yells.

"What?" Elena asks.

"She told me. Flat out. She can't save me, nobody can."

"And you just somehow neglected to mention this to me?" Sam asks.

"Well, I really don't care what that bitch thinks and neither should you, so..." Dean starts.

"So what, now you're keeping secrets from me, Dean?" Sam asks.

"You really wanna talk about who's keeping secrets from who?" Elena says.

They all stare at each other in silence for a long moment. Sam turns away. "Now where you going?" Dean asks.

"Guess I'm going to Ohio."

BEN'S HOUSE
[ ☼ ]

Sam, Elena and Dean in the Impala turn into the driveway of the house where Ben died. In the study, a Woman points somewhere. "I found him there." She says.

"Why don't you tell us everything you saw, Mrs Waters." Dean says.

"You mean beside my dead husband?" She asks.

"Just everything else you saw. Please." Sam says.

Mrs Waters sighs. "Blood. Everywhere. The phone was ripped from the wall, his favourite scotch on the desk, what else could you possibly want to know?" She asks.

"Why was the phone ripped from the wall?" Elena asks.

"I don't know."

"You mind if I take a look?" Sam asks.

"I already went over this with the other Detectives." Mrs. Waters says.

"We'll be out of your hair in no time, ma'am." Dean says.

Sam presses a few buttons on the phone. "Ma'am, what time did your husband die?" He asks.

"Sometime after 11."

Sam waits until Dean looks at him, then taps the phone display. "What about strange phone calls? Receive any of those lately, weird interference, static, anything like that?" Dean asks.

"No." Mrs. Water says. Dean raises his eyebrows at her. "No!"

"Mrs Waters, withholding information from the police is a capital offence." Dean says. Sam noisily clears his throat. Dean glances at him and receives a bitchface. "In some parts of the world I'm sure." He mumbles under his breath.

Mrs Waters sighs. "A couple of weeks ago, uh...there was this..." She starts.

"This what?" Elena asks.

"I woke up one morning, I heard Ben in his study. I thought he was talking to a woman."

"What made you think that?" Sam asks.

"Because he kept calling her Linda. The thing is, I picked up the other line and nobody was there, Ben was talking to nobody." Mrs. Waters says.

"There was nothing?" Sam asks.

"Just static."

"Did you ever speak to Ben about this phone call?" Sam asks.

"No. I should have but...no."

"Did he ever say who Linda was?" Elena asks.

Mrs Waters starts getting upset. "What difference does it make, there was nobody on the other end!" She yells. The boys exchange a look. ... INT.

MOTEL ROOM
[ ☼ ]

Dean is at the laptop, Sam sitting on the bed with Elena. "Linda's a babe. Or, was." Dean says.

Sam rises. "Did you find her?" He asks.

"Yeah, Linda Bateman. She and Ben Waters were high school sweethearts." Dean says.

"So what happened?" Elena asks.

"Drunk driver hit them head on. Ben walked away." Dean says.

"So, what then? Dead flame calls to chat?" Sam asks.

"You would think, but Linda was cremated. So why's she still floating around?"

"You got me." Sam says.

"What about that, uh, caller I.D?" Dean asks.

"Turns out, it's a phone number." Sam says.

"No phone number I've ever seen."

"Yeah, 'cause it's about a century old, back from when phones had cranks." Sam says.

"So why use that number to reach out and touch someone?" Elena asks.

"Got me there too, but we should put a trace on it." Sam says.

"Well how the hell are we going to put a trace on something that's over 100 years old?" Dean asks.

BASEMENT OFFICE
[ ☼ ]

Dean, Elena and Sam follow a suited man down the stairs and along a hallway. "We don't get many folks from HQ down here." The Man says.

"Yes well the main office mentioned that there would be a lunch." Dean says. Sam gives Dean bitchface behind the man's back. Dean shrugs.

"Well I'm sure we can arrange something. The man you wanna be speaking to is right this..." Sam swipes at a fly that has flown into his hair. "I know, sorry. We've got something of a hygiene issue down here if you ask me."

The Man enters the basement office. "Stewie? What did I tell you about keeping this place clean." He says. Stewie sits at a large console with multiple screens and keyboards. Various packets and junk food are strewn about.

Stewie jumps at their entrance and desperately tries to close down the multiple screens in front of him showing advertisements for porn sites. "Spam mail...spam mail..." He says.

"Stewie Myers. Mr Campbell, Mr Raimi, and Miss Knox."

Stewie still clicks. "I don't know how all this got here..." He says. The Man reaches out and flicks the back of Stewie's head, making him jump again and grunt.

"From headquarters?" The Man asks and Stewie spins around in his chair, then quickly crosses his legs and places his hands together on his lap. "Give these gentlemen whatever they need."

"Yeah." Says Stewie.

"Thank you." Dean says.

"Thanks." Sam says. The Man leaves.

"So...can I help you?" Stewie asks.

"Well..." Elena starts.

Dean checks to make sure the Man is gone, then gestures toward the screen. "Is that, ahhh, BustyAsianBeauties.com?" He smirks.

"No."

"Oh, me so horny."

A shot of the screen shows it is bustyasianbeauties.com. "Maybe." Stewie says.

"A word to the wise? Platinum membership? Worth every penny. Ha?" Dean nods knowingly.

"Right, anyway. We're here to trace a number?" Sam hands Stewie a piece of paper.

"Where did you get this?" He asks.

"Off caller I.D." Elena says.

"Oh no, that's impossible." Stewie says.

"It hasn't been used in a few years, we know."

"A few years? It's prehistoric. Trust me, nobody is using this number anymore." Stewie says.

"Sure. Could you run it anyway?" Sam asks.

"Sure. Why don't I just rearrange my whole life first." Stewie says. Dean, Elena and Sam glance at each other.

"I got this." Elena whispers to the boys. Dean smiles.

Elena leans in closer. "Listen, uh, Stewie. You got like six kinds of employee code violations down here, not to mention the sickening porn that is clogging up your hard drive. Now when my partner says run the number, I suggest you run the number!" She yells and slams her hand in the table.

Sam and Dean look at her in astonishment, then in admiration. They both give Stewie a hard look. He looks between them then turns back to his console. Dean grins and Sam shrugs and smiles back.

"Okay, whatever, jeez!" Stewie clicks a few more buttons. One of his screens fills with a long list of numbers. "Holy crap."

"What?" Sam asks.

"I can't tell you where the number comes from, but I can tell you where it's been going."

"What do you mean?" Sam asks.

Stewie pushes print, goes to the printer and hands some paper to Sam. "Ten different numbers in the past few weeks, all got calls from the Same number." He looks between Sam and Dean as they stare at each other, then sighs and walks between them back to his console. He sits and stares at it for a moment, then looks back.

"So, are we done here? Cause I was...sort of...busy?"

Dean smirks. "Right."