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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧

𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳

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Delaney laid on one of the beds in the motel room that they had just booked. Sam sat at the table as he did some more research on the drownings taking place while Dean took clothes out of his bag, tossing them on top of Delaney. She was too lazy and relaxed to even yell at him to knock it off and throw the clothes on the bed that was right next to her. He was probably just doing it to annoy her, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of getting annoyed with him.

Sam explained to his two siblings about how this particular lake had no eyewitness accounts to what happened. No one to give them an explanation on what they had to deal with. No one was living to tell the tale of what happened. It only made getting to the bottom of these weird drownings that much harder.

Dean tossed one more article of clothing at Delaney, which unfortunately for her was a pair of underwear. She screamed and quickly shoved the clothes off her and got off the bed, glaring at Dean who merely shrugged and turned his attention to the laptop on the table. His eyes quickly scanned the screen before he froze and pointed at a name in the middle of the screen. "Wait, Bar, Christopher Bar - where have I heard that name before?"

"Christopher Bar, the victim in May," Sam began to read as Delaney walked over to see what her brothers were talking about. "Oh. Christopher Bar was Andrea's husband, Lucas' father. Apparently, he took Lucas out swimming. Lucas was on a floating wooden platform when Chris drowned two hours before the kid got rescued."

Delaney felt her heart shatter at the story of how Lucas' father passed on. She couldn't even begin to imagine what it was like to watch your parent die in front of you and then be stranded for hours before getting rescued. Her mother may have died in her nursery, but Delaney had both been too busy crying and too young to even remember a single detail about how Mary died that night. She only knew anything through stories Sam, Dean or John would tell her. Now she knew why Lucas was so quiet all of the time. He was traumatized and she couldn't blame him. 

"Maybe we have an eyewitness after all," Sam noted, sighing as he stared at the picture of a clearly distraught Lucas next to a sheriff wrapping him in a warm blanket.

"No wonder that kid was so freaked out. Watching one of your parents die isn't something you just get over."

Delaney and Sam exchanged a look before glancing at their older brother, who was clearly lost in the memory of their mom dying. 

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The three siblings decided to search for Lucas and Andrea. Hopefully, they could get Lucas to say something, anything, about what happened to his father. It sucked having the little kid talk about a traumatizing event, but it was the only way the Winchester siblings could figure out what was plaguing the lake.

"Can we join you?" Sam asked as the three siblings walked over to Andrea who was sat on a bench. Lucas was on the playground drawing on a bench.

Andrea glanced over at Lucas, watching him for a moment, before looking back at the Winchester trio with a polite smile. "I'm here with my son."

"Do you mind if I go say hi?" Delaney questioned and waited for Andrea to give her permission to walk over to Lucas. The boys nodded at her in encouragement before they sat down with Andrea, Dean clearly trying to work his charm already.

Delaney walked across the playground, dodging kids running around chasing each other. She approached Lucas and squatted in front of him on the other side of the bench. He was coloring a picture he had drawn with a few army men to the right of him. "Hi, Lucas. How's it going?"

Lucas stayed silent as he continued to work on whatever it was he was drawing and coloring in.

Delaney picked up a green army man and started playing with it. "My older brother, Dean, used to make up battle scenes with these to make me laugh. He would be really dramatic about it and sometimes he would even pretend one of them hit him and fall to the floor."

Still, Lucas continued to stay quiet and act as if Delaney wasn't even in front of him. This kid was going to be way harder to crack than she originally planned.

"So crayons are more your thing then? That's cool. It'll get you in good with the ladies, trust me," Delaney joked and looked over at the pile of drawings Lucas already finished. She shuffled through them a bit before placing them back down on the bench. "Those are pretty good, Lucas. You definitely are going to make it as an artist. Who knows? Maybe you'll be better than Picasso."

Delaney grabbed a random crayon and paper, placing them both on the bench in front of her. "Mind if I sit and draw with you for a bit? I'm not so bad myself at drawing. I did it a lot when I was younger to pass the time"

Lucas continued to draw and didn't say anything when Delaney moved a bit over so she could have more room to do her "masterpiece". Talking to him was like talking to a wall. No responses but it clearly listens.

"You know, I'm thinking you can hear me," Delaney stated, beginning her drawing. "You just don't want to talk. I don't know exactly what happened to your dad, but I know it was something real bad. I think I know how you feel. When I was your age, my mother died right in my room and I can't remember it because I was so young."

Lucas halted for a second in his drawing but didn't move his gaze from the paper. Delaney hoped that something got to him as she spoke. Maybe it helped him to know that someone else went through what he had gone through with his father.

"Well, maybe you don't think anyone will listen to you or, uh... believe you. I want you to know that I will. You don't even have to say anything. You could draw me a picture about what you saw that day with your dad on the lake."

Lucas went right back to drawing his picture, making Delaney think maybe she imagined him stopping his drawing to listen to her. She really thought she was making progress with him but she guessed not. At least she tried and that was all her brothers could ask for.

"Okay, no problem. I drew you a picture though," Delaney showed Lucas her picture of a few stick figures. "This is my family. This is my dad and mom. I didn't really know my mom well since I was a baby when she died, but I'm told she was the greatest person you'd ever meet. My dad I don't get along too great because we both view the world differently and never see eye to eye."

Delaney moved her finger over to the three smaller figures next to the two parent ones. "These are my brothers, Sam and Dean. They can be really annoying and overprotective at times but I guess they're pretty cool. They fight like an old married couple but it can get entertaining at times, especially when it's over something like where we're going to eat or sleep. Then there's me, the baby."

Lucas didn't even acknowledge her picture, continuing to work on his own. Delaney sighed and placed her crayon down on the bench along with the picture. It was useless to continue to try and get anything out of the kid. He wasn't going to talk to her of all people so she decided to just go back to her brothers.

"Alright, I'm a sucky artist. You keep this though, I made it for you. I'll see you around, buddy," Delaney said before standing up and walking back over to her brothers.

"Lucas hasn't said a word, not even to me - not since his dad's accident," Andrea was saying to her brothers as Delaney approached.

"Yeah, we heard. Sorry," Dean apologized, a sad smile forming on his face.

"What are the doctors saying?" Sam asked, not really understanding why he was still not talking.

"That it's a kind of post-traumatic stress," Andrea replied.

Sam shook his head, sympathy clear on his face. "That can't be easy for either of you."

"We moved in with my dad. He helps out a lot. It's just - " Andrea stopped mid-sentence, stopping herself from crying. "When I think about what Lucas went through, what he saw..."

The Winchester siblings shared a look before Dean spoke up. "Kids are strong. You'd be surprised what they can deal with."

"You know, he used to have such life. He was hard to keep up with, to tell you the truth," Andrea explained with a laugh, the siblings joining in with her. "Now he just sits there. Drawing those pictures, playing with those army men. I just wish - "

Lucas walked up to the little circle they made, halting whatever Andrea was going to tell them as she greeted him. He looked up at Delaney as he held up a picture to her.

Delaney squatted down in front of him and gently took the picture from him. "Thanks, little man."

Lucas didn't say anything before he turned and walked back over to his bench to continue drawing, leaving the small circle to be left confused.

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The next morning, Sam walked into the motel room as Delaney was finishing up her breakfast Dean brought her from the coffee shop down the street. "So it's safe to say we can rule out Nessie."

"What do you mean?" Dean questioned, confused by Sam's sudden information drop.

"I just drove by the Carlton house. There was an ambulance there. Will Carlton is dead," Sam explained, dropping down onto the bed next to Dean.

"He drowned?" Delaney voiced, tossing her trash into the garbage before walking over to her brothers.

"Yeah. In the sink."

Delaney made a face at that. How does one possibly drown in the sink? She could understand a bathtub maybe. But a sink? What was going on here?

"What the hell? So this isn't a creature. We're dealing with something else." 

"Yeah, but what?" Sam whispered, clearly stumped on what this whole thing could be. What kind of thing drowns people like this?

"I don't know. A water wraith maybe? Some kind of demon?"

"Something that controls water..." Delaney adds to the list Dean was trying to make up in his head.

Sam and Dean looked up at Delaney as she said that. It was as if that snapped something in their minds. "Water that comes from the same source."

"The lake," Sam revealed, the wheels in his head turning. "Which would explain why it's upping the body count. The lake is draining. It'll be dry in a few months. Whatever this thing is, whatever it wants, it's running out of time."

"And if it can get through the pipes, it can get to anyone almost anywhere," Delaney finished, feeling proud to be on the same page as her brothers. She was glad to finally be learning the ways of this hunting thing. It made her more useful to the boys so she wouldn't be holding them back.

Dean stood up from his bed and started pacing the room. "This is going to happen again soon."

"We do know one thing for sure. This has got something to do with Bill Carlton," Sam noted.

"It took both of his kids," Delaney said, realizing there was no way it could be a coincidence that boy the Carlton children were now dead.

"I've been asking around. Lucas' dad, Chris - Bill Carlton's godson."

"Let's go pay Mr. Carlton a visit."

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Mr. Carlton was sitting by the lake when the Winchester siblings arrived. He looked absolutely distraught as he looked out over the lake, as if picturing the lake taking both of his children. Delaney almost wanted to turn to Dean and Sam and tell them they should come back another time because Will Carlton only had just died last night. She didn't think Mr. Carlton was in the right state to answer their questions.

"Mr. Carlton?" Sam greeted, slowly walking over to him with Dean and Delaney trailing behind. "We'd like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind."

"We're from the department - "

"I don't care who you're with. I've answered enough questions today," Mr. Carlton interrupted Dean, his voice wavering as he tried to keep himself from breaking in front of the three stood in front of him.

"Your son said he saw something in that lake. What about you? You ever see anything out there?" Sam questioned, completely ignoring Mr. Carlton's rejections to not answering any questions. "Mr. Carlton, Sophie's drowning and Will's death - we think there might be a connection to you or your family."

"My children are gone," Mr. Carlton cried, finally losing the tough persona he was trying to hide behind. "It's... It's worse than dying." He looked up at the Winchesters, tears streaming down his broken face. "Go away... please."

Delaney tugged on both of her brothers' jacket sleeves, silently telling them to knock it off. The two brothers reluctantly followed after Delaney, clearly annoyed they couldn't get any answers out of the man. Delaney couldn't blame Mr. Carlton for telling the boys to go away and leave him alone. He just lost both of his kids in a short span of time, anyone would want to be left alone after that. The poor man had no one left after this. That's worse than death.

"What do you think?" Sam inquired as they made their way to the car.

"I think the poor guy's been through Hell," Dean replied, voicing Delaney's exact thoughts. "I also think he's not telling us something."

"So now what?" Sam leaned his forearms on the car as he waited for Dean to give his opinion.

Delaney furrowed her eyebrows as she looked over the Carlton's house. She seemed to be deep in thought as she continued to rake her eyes over the place.

"What is it, Della?" Dean asked, walking over to her and trying to figure out what she was looking at.

Delaney fumbled in her jeans pocket for the picture Lucas had drawn for her. She looked between the house and the drawing before it clicked in her head. Lucas drew the Carlton house. "Maybe Bill's not the only one who knows something."

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"I'm sorry, but I don't think this is a good idea," Andrea sternly insisted, hands firmly placed on her hips.

"Andrea, please. I just need to talk to Lucas for a few minutes. That's all I ask," Delaney pleaded, desperately wanting to go up to Lucas and see if he can give her anything else. She seemed to be the only one Lucas reacted to in any way so she was the only one who could run up there and speak to him.

"He won't say anything. What good's it gonna do?"

Sam sighed and decided to butt in. "Andrea, we think more people might get hurt. We think something's happening out there."

"My husband - the others - they just drowned. That's all," Andrea continued to insist but Delaney could tell she was trying to convince herself and not them.

"If that's what you really believe, then we'll go. However, if you think there's even a possibility that something else could be going on here, please let my sister talk to Lucas," Dean begged, knowing fully well Andrea didn't believe a word she was saying to them.

Andrea stared between the siblings before finally giving Delaney five minutes to talk to Lucas. They all made their way up to Lucas' room and Delaney entered while the other three stood in the hall so they wouldn't overwhelm him.

"Hey, buddy," Delaney greeted as she sat next to Lucas on the floor as he was doing his usual drawing and playing with army men. "You remember me? Delaney?"

Delaney glanced down and noticed multiple drawings of a red bicycle which piqued Delaney's interest slightly. "You know, my brothers and I, uh... we wanted to thank you for the drawing you gave me at the park... but the thing is, I need your help again."

Delaney pulled the picture from her back pocket and opened it up for Lucas to see, placing it on top of all the drawings of the red bicycle. "How did you know to draw this? Did you know something bad was going to happen?"

Lucas did what he had originally done at the park, ignore her and continue on with his drawing as if Delaney wasn't in the room with him.

"Maybe you could nod yes or no for me," Delaney suggested to him so this way he wouldn't have to talk to her. Just simply answer the question with a nod of the head. He continued to ignore her and Delaney suddenly began to realize something she should have realized when Sam had originally told her and Dean about Christopher's death.

"You're scared. It's okay, I understand. You already know about how my mom passed away. My big brother Dean saw it all, you know. He had to get Sam and I out of the house while my dad tried to save her but failed. From what I know about my mom, though, I know she would want me to be brave everyday of my life. Fight off all the bad things in the world so I can feel safe. I do my best to be brave for her every day I can. I want her to be up in Heaven and be proud of the daughter she didn't get to raise herself. I wish I got to know her because I'm told I'm just like ever in every way except looks. So I want to do something right and be brave just like she was.

"Maybe your dad wants you to be brave, too," Delaney finished, letting out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding as she spoke to Lucas. She could feel both of her brothers' heavy stares on her but she refused to break her gaze on Lucas. This was about him right now, not her.

Lucas dropped his crayon and looked up to meet Delaney's gaze. He shifted through all of his drawings before passing her one that had a drawing of a church, a bell to the side of it, with a little boy in front of a gate with the exact same red bike Lucas has been drawing.

Delaney smiled gratefully at Lucas. "Thanks, Lucas."

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"Andrea said the kid never drew like that till his dad died," Dean explained as he sped the Impala down the road.

"There are cases going through a traumatic experience could make a person more sensitive to premonitions, psychic tendencies," Sam added.

"What if Lucas is tapping into it somehow?" Delaney questioned, poking her head between her brothers in the front seat. "It's only a matter of time before somebody else drowns, so if you got a better lead, please tell me."

Sam held his hands up in defense. "Okay, sudden expert of the demon world, we got another house to find."

"The only issue is, there's about a thousand yellow two-stories in this county alone," Dean groaned.

Delaney stared down at the church in the drawing Sam was holding. "See this church? I bet there's less than a thousand of those around here."

"She goes to college for two years and she thinks she's so smart," Dean teased Delaney, playfully ruffling her hair as the three siblings laughed. It was nice to have a good moment together since they haven't had a lot of those as of late. With their dad missing, the three have been on edge, more so the boys than Delaney.

Sam was the first to break the happy moment as he looked to Delaney who was currently fixing her hair. "You know, Delly, what you said about mom - you never told us about that before."

Delaney shrugged as she fiddled with a little tear in the seat. "It's not a big deal. I don't bring it up too much because I never really have anything to say. I never got to know her like you guys."

"She really loved you. Sammy and I used to get jealous because she spoiled you like you wouldn't believe," Dean explained, chuckling softly as the memories flashed through his mind. "You were the only girl and she's always wanted one. So you got all the special treatment. Mom used to try to cover it up by saying you were a baby so you needed all the love and attention. Sammy and I knew it was a load of bull though."

"God, could you imagine how Mom would be with her if she were still alive?" Sam asked, causing the three erupt in laughter again. 

"I'm actually jealous you got to know her. I never thought I'd be jealous of you goons ever," Delaney admitted as her laughs quieted down.

Sam just chuckled in response and Dean looked between his siblings. "We don't have to hug now, do we?"

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Eventually, the three siblings finally made it to where Lucas had drawn for them. They stared up at the two story house before making their way over to the house and rang the doorbell. An elderly woman opened the door and had let them after they explained they were with the sheriff.

"We're so sorry to bother you, ma'am, but does a little boy live here by chance?" Dean questioned as they settled into the living room. "He might wear a blue ball cap, has a red bicycle."

"No, sir," the elderly woman replied, her voice cracking slightly. "Not for a very long time. Peter's been gone 35 years now. The police never - I never had any idea what happened. He just disappeared. Losing him - you know, it's... it's worse than dying." 

The elderly woman finally broke as the tears she was trying to hold back flooded out of her eyes and down her cheeks. She was still very clearly upset over the loss of her son.

"Did he disappear from here - I mean, from this house?"

"He was supposed to ride his bike straight home after school, and he never showed up."

Dean noticed a picture of Peter with another boy. The two were by the red bike Lucas had drawn and their arms were around each other's shoulders, smiling brightly at the camera. He flipped it over to see the words "PETER SWEENY AND BILLY CARLTON, 1970" written on the back of the photo.

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"Okay, this little boy, Peter Sweeney, vanishes, and this is all connected to Bill Carlton somehow," Sam explained, going over all the information they now had compiled together. 

Dean was speeding down the road to get to Bill Carlton's house as quickly as possible. "Bill sure as hell seems to be hiding something."

"Bill - the people he loves - they're all getting punished," Delaney added, once again poking her head in between her brothers in the front.

"What if Bill did something?" Dean suggested, looking between his two siblings before focusing back on the road.

"What if Bill killed him?"

"Peter's spirit would be furious. It would want revenge. It's possible," Dean agreed with Sam as he pulled in front of the Carlton house. 

The trio stepped out of the car and made their way towards the house as Sam called out for the man.

Dean looked around them before freezing when he noticed Mr. Carlton on a boat in the lake. "Hey, check it out."

The boys rushed over to the lake while they both yelled at Delaney to stay where she was to be safe. "Mr. Carlton! You need to come back!"

Mr. Carlton turned to look at the two boys who continued to yell at him to turn the boat back around and come to the dock. He ignored them before turning back to look over the lake as he sped his boat across the water. Mr. Carlton's boat seemed to hit nothing before his boat and him went soaring through the air and crashed into the lake, disappearing from sight.

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An hour or so later, the siblings walked into the sheriff's department with Andrea's father.

Andrea's head snapped over to the door when she heard them walk in and stood up to greet everyone. "Sam, Delaney, Dean. I didn't expect to see you here."

"So now you're on a first-name basis," the sheriff noted, clearly having no idea the four have been talking lately. "What are you doing here?"

"I brought you dinner," Andrea answered, gesturing to the bag of food she had placed on the seat next to Lucas.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I really don't have the time."

Andrea crossed her arms, something clearly on her mind. "I heard about Bill Carlton. Is it true? Is something going on with the lake?"

"Right now, we don't know what the truth is, but I think it might be better if you and Lucas went on home," the sheriff ordered as he shrugged off his jacket and tossed it onto the chair next to him.

Lucas suddenly began to whimper and grabbed onto Delaney's hand.

Delaney jumped in surprise but quickly snapped out of it and bent down to Lucas. "Lucas, sweetie, what's wrong?"

Andrea quickly rushed over to Lucas and wrapped her arms around him to hold him before he fell to the floor. "Lucas, why are you crying, sweetie?"

"Lucas, it's okay," Delaney assured him as she rubbed a hand through his hair softly multiple times. "It's okay, buddy, we're right here."

Seeing Lucas wouldn't be calming down anytime soon, Andrea began to push him towards the exit so she could get him home. The whole time Lucas stared at Delaney, trying to communicate something to her through his eyes but she couldn't decipher what it was. It broke her heart seeing the kid break down like that and it made her feel even worse that she didn't know how to help him.

The sheriff led the way into his office, Sam and Dean sitting in the chairs in front of the desk while Delaney paced back and forth, the events with Lucas clearly upsetting her.

"So, let me get this straight, you see... something attack Bill's boat, sending Bill, who is a very good swimmer, by the way, into the drink. You never see him again?"

Dean and Sam looked at each other before nodding in agreement to Jake's recounting of what happened. "Yeah, that about sums it up."

"And I'm supposed to believe this, even though I've already sonar-swept that entire lake and what you're describing is impossible and you're not really wildlife service?"

This made Delaney halt in her pacing as her head snapped up to look at Jake with a disbelieving expression on her face. She was sure the boys had the same expression as she did in this moment. Delaney tried to rack her brain to see if any of them had screwed up and mentioned something about them not being wildlife. However, she couldn't come up with anything.

"That's right, I checked. The department's never heard of you three."

"See? Now, we can explain that," Dean began but was cut off by Jake.

"Enough, please. The only reason you're breathing free air is one of Bill's neighbors saw him steering out that boat just before you did. So we have a couple of options here. I can arrest you for impersonating government officials and hold you as material witnesses to Bill Carlton's disappearance, or we can chalk this all up to a bad day, you can get into your car, you put this town in your rearview mirror, and you don't ever dare darken my doorstep again."

"Door number two sounds good," Sam answered for his two siblings who seem to be shocked into silence.

Jake gave them a thumbs up and leaned back against his desk. "I'd choose that door too."

AUTHORS NOTE

Hai so I'm sorry for the wait on this update. I had Christmas and went away twice since the last update and have literally only be in my house for about five days since then. I decided to make this episode into three parts instead of two like I planned because:

1) I'm about to leave to go out so I can't make this any longer unless I wait until I get home to finish and I don't want to do that

2) I want to get this out already for you guys because it's been so long since the last update

But because I'm breaking this up, you might get a double update today if thing's go to how I'm planning it out! So finger's crossed guys!

ANYWAYS, I HOPE YOU GUYS ALL ENJOYED THIS. DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT AND VOTE SO I KNOW WHAT YOU GUYS ARE THINKING OF THIS.

ORIGINALLY POSTED: DECEMBER 19, 2017

EDITED: AUGUST 8TH, 2019