DEAD IN THE WATER [PART ONE]
___

"I'm so proud of you, you know that?"
—
"I know, Daddy. You tell me all the time."

• • •

It's been a few weeks since the Wendigo fiasco and since then, the gash on Juliet's head has healed and Harlow was able to get the cast on her wrist off, from when she sprained it on the hunt.

Dean, Juliet, Sam and Harlow are in the diner that is opposite their motel. The oldest Winchester Brother sits at the table with Harlow next to him while Juliet and Sam are at the counter ordering two coffees.

"Are you gonna eat that?"

Dean pauses his task of circling obituaries in the paper to eye his daughters half eaten bacon cheeseburger. Harlow looks up at her father after eyeing his mostly empty plate in front of him, meaning her father was being greedy.

The five year old purses her lips and shakes her head before picking up her burger and taking a big bite out of it which causes Dean to laugh before going back to what he was doing before pausing and circling an obituary that reads,

'CARLTON, SOPHIE -The Carlton family is sad to announce the death of their beloved daughter in a tragic swimming accident. Sophie Carlton, 18, was having her [...] Lake Manitoc, WI, an [...] suddenly [...]'

Deans attention is drawn away from the paper and towards an attractive waitress, her name tag reading 'Wendy'.

Wendy looks down at Dean, a seductive smirk painted on her red stained lips. The waitress bats her eyelashes at the hunter, either not seeing or not caring that his daughter was there."Can I get you anything else?" The hunter looks to his daughter, "You want anything else, Hon? A milkshake? More fries?" Harlow doesn't look up from her drawing, but does shake her head, no.

Dean turns back to the woman and gives the her a polite smile and shakes his head, "Just the check, please." He then looks back down, pen in his mouth, to continue reading the obituary he had found as Harlow starts to color in a drawing with one of the crayons from the box that one of the staff had given her.

Wendy frowns when Dean doesn't respond to her flirtatious ways. Her frown deepens more when Juliet approaches the table, with Sam behind her, and places her manicured nails onto Deans shoulder.

"You found anything yet, babe?"

Wendy's eyes narrow at the emphasis on the word "babe". The waitress eyes Juliet up and down and glares at the huntress but backtracks when her blue eyes meet her chocolate brown ones.

Juliet glares a fierce glare at the waitress and smirks in victory when Wendy storms off in defeat. The huntress looks down at her boyfriend to see him smirking at her while also giving her a look.

Juliet gives him an innocent one in return. "Why are you lookin' at me like that?" Dean chuckles and shakes his head, "I know what you were doin'." The female hunter gives him a playful smile. "I have no idea what you're talkin' about."

As Juliet moves to take her hand off of his shoulder, Dean quickly grabs it and brings her 'round to sit on his lap. He nuzzles his nose against her temple before placing a gentle kiss there. "For the record, you don't have to be jealous of other women, I have eyes for you and you only."

Juliet blushes at his words as Sam smiles at the two as the envious feeling from before starts to form a pit in his stomach, but he tries not to let it show. Harlow, too, smiles at her parents love for one another, shining as bright as the Sun and clear for everyone to see.

However, her face soon turns sour as her father leans in to kiss her mother, deeply. Harlow scrunches her face and goes back to coloring.

Sam clears his throat at his brother and best friends antics.

Dean pulls away from the kiss and sighs while looking down before looking back at his brother, his eyes gleaming with mirth. "You know, Sam, we are allowed to have fun once in a while." He then points to Juliet, "That's fun." Juliet scoffs and slaps his arm once more causing Dean to chuckle and kiss her on the cheek in apology while tightening his hold on her before returning his attention to his Brother.

Instead of answering Dean, Sam looks at him. The older Winchester Brother sighs at Sams silence and hands the newspaper over to him.

"Here, take a look at this, I think I got one. Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin. Last week Sophie Carlton, eighteen, walks into the lake, doesn't walk out. Authorities dragged the water; nothing. Sophie Carlton is the third Lake Manitoc drowning this year. None of the other bodies were found either. They had a funeral two days ago."

Juliet looks up at Dean, from her position on his lap, and raises an eyebrow while giving him a deadpan look. "A funeral?" Dean turns to Juliet and nods his head, "Yeah, it's weird, they burried an empty coffin. For, uh, closure or whatever."

Sam furrows his eyebrows at that last bit while passing the paper to Juliet for her to read. "Closure? What closure? People don't just disappear, Dean. Other people just stop looking for them."

Dean and Juliet share a look with one another before Dean looks back at Sam while Juliet looks down at the newspaper in her hand, scheming over the words that Dean had circled.

"Something you want to say to us?"

Sam hesitates before biting the bullet and giving in with a sigh. "The trail for Dad. It's getting colder every day." Dean nods his head at his brothers words, not disagreeing with him. "Exactly. So what are we supposed to do?"

Sam huffs, getting annoyed with Dean. "I don't know. Something. Anything." Dean shakes his head, "You know what? I'm sick of this attitude. You don't think I wanna find Dad as much as you do? That Juliet doesn't?"

Juliet puts down the paper and turns her head, putting all of her attention on her daughter and her drawing, not wanting to be apart nor get inbetween of the brothers little argument.

Sam sighs and looks down. "Yeah, I know you do. That you both do, it's just..." Before he can finish, Dean cuts him off, "We're the ones that's been with him every single day for the past two years, while you've been off to college going to prep rallies. We will find Dad, but until then, we're gonna kill everything bad between here and there. Okay?"

Juliet bites her lip at Deans words but keeps her head turned so he can't see her face, if he did, he would know she knew something and wasn't telling him. Dean can read her like an open book no matter how hard she tries to conceal it from him, he can always tell.

It's then Juliet processes Deans words fully and turns around and slaps him on the arm, hard. Dean hisses in pain and turns to the brunette in shock. "What was that for?!" Juliet glares at him and points to their daughter, "How many times have I told you not to cuss or say vulgar words in front of Harlow?"

Dean winces and looks to Harlow to see her still drawing. He lets out a breath of relief as it looks as if Harlow didn't hear his words. A soft smile starts to pull at his lips as he just watches his little girl sit at the table, drawing. So innocent, so sweet and so young. The soft smile then turns into a frown as his thoughts dwell on that.

Harlow is young, she's only five years old and he's introduced her as well as brought her up in a life that he swore he wouldn't raise his kids in, a life of hunting. No wonder the toddler is scared of the dark, he'd be surprised if she didn't sleep with a portable night light with the stuff she has seen as well as witnessed in her five years of life. Another thought then strikes him, one he's never had before, what if Harlow grows up to resent him for bringing her up in this kind of life, like Sam does their father? Or worse, hates him for it? He wouldn't be able to bear it if that were to happen. It would just break him.

The feeling of Juliet's arm comfortingly rubbing his shoulder brings him out of his thoughts. He looks up into her chocolate brown eyes and smiles a smile only meant for her. Dean knows that Juliet knows where his thoughts had gone by the look on her face and her sad but soft smile. The brown-haired huntress leans down and whispers in his ear, making sure Harlow can't hear her words.

"Harlow loves you and she knows that she has you to protect her from the things that scare her and from the monsters that are lurking in the dark. She loves her daddy and always will. Besides, if I'm being honest, I think she loves you that little bit more and I don't mind nor care because she sees you as her hero, Dean, and I wouldn't and couldn't want anything more."

Dean beams at her words and leans down and kisses her, hard on the lips in thanks.

Sam playfully rolls his eyes at the two but clears his throat when he sees Juliet pull away from the kiss and glare at Wendy as the waitress quickly walks by and places their check on the table before scurrying away, intimidated by Juliet. Sams eyes widen when he sees Dean about to lean in for another kiss and claps his hands together causing Harlow to jump in her seat and look up at her Uncle.

"All right, Lake Manitoc."

Sam huffs when he sees Deans attention still on Juliet.

"Hey!"

Dean blinks and pulls his eyes away from his girlfriend and towards his brother, a dumb and clueless experssion on his face.

"Huh?"

Sam sighs in exasperation, "How far, to Lake Manitoc?"

Dean opens his mouth to reply but Harlows giggle cuts him off. The oldest Winchester Brother turns to his Daughter, a playful glare on his face. "And what are you laughing at, little miss?" Harlow shakes her head, red-brown hair whipping everywhere, as her giggles die down.

"Daddy, you'we so whipped!"

Juliet and Dean look to one another, eyes wide before the former of the two bursts into laughter as Sam looks at his niece in surprise while Dean turns to Harlow, a questioning glimmer in his eyes. "Where'd you learn that word, baby?"

"I heard Uncy Sam say it under his bweath the other day." Dean turns to look at his brother, his eyebrow raised, "Oh, he said that did he?" Sam clears his throat, blushing in embarrasment as Juliet continues to laugh.

"So, Lake Manitoc."

• • •

The four are now piled into the Impala with Sam upfront with Dean while Juliet and Harlow are in the back, the child of the group continuing her drawing from the Diner, the litle girl having taken the sheet of paper as well as the box of crayons the Diner staff had given her, with her. Harlow occasionally pauses from her drawing to look out of the window of the car as she spots white sheets hanging on a clothesline as well as someone fishing in the distance.

'Round and Round' by Ratt is softly playing from the stereo as the Impala drives past a sign reading, 'Welcome to Lake Manitoc WI'

Ten minutes of driving later, Dean pulls up to the Carlton house, having had Sam find the address. Dean turns the key in the ignition, causing the Impala's engine to stop. The four step out of the vehicle, badges in the Hunters' hands.

Dean knocks on the door as Sam and Juliet stand on either side of him with Harlow clutching her Mothers hand.

Dean looks at the boy in question, "Will Carlton?"

Will nods his head, "Yeah, that's right."

Dean then flashes his badge, Sam and Juliet doing the same. "I'm Agent Ford. This is Agent Hill-" He points to Sam "And Agent Marshall." Then to Juliet. "We're with the US Military Wildlife Service."

While her Father is doing the talking, Harlow looks up and spots a sad looking man sitting on a bench in the distance, looking out to the lake, expressionless.

Bill nods his head at the confirmation of their IDs before leading them over to the sad looking man that Harlow had spotted. The Hunters watch as Will Carlton points out to the lake. "She was about a hundred yards out. That's where she got dragged down."

Dean looks out to the Lake before looking back at Will, "And you're sure she didn't just drown?" Will nods his head in confidence. "Yeah. She was a Varsity swimmer. She practically grew up in that lake. She was safe out there as she was in her own bathtub."

"So no splashing? No signs of distress?"

Will turns to Sam and shakes his head in reply. "No, that's what I'm telling you." Juliet gives Will a small smile, seeing the Carlton Brother start to become anxious and annoyed with the giraffe-like Winchester. "Did you see any shadows in the water? Maybe some dark shape breach the surface?" Will shakes his head at Juliets questions, "No. Again, she was really far out there."

Dean clears his throat, bringing Wills attention back to him. "You ever see any strange tracks by the shoreline?" Will shakes his head, worry clear in his expression. "No, never. Why? Why, what do you think's out there?"

Juliet, noticing the young man's breathing start to pick up, quickly puts her hand on his shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze before quickly drawing it back to her side. "We'll let you know as soon as we do."

Will's breathing starts to even out at hearing her words but he can't help but still feel worried. He watches as Dean and Juliet start to walk back to the Impala while Sam stays in place. "What about your Father?" The Hunter and Huntress pause in their tracks and turn back.

Sam nods to Wills Father, Bill. The man having not moved a muscle since they had arrived at the lake.

"Can we talk to him?"

Will turns to look at his Dad before turning back to Sam. "Look, if you don't mind, I mean...he didn't see anything and he's kind of been through a lot." Sam nods his head, "We understand." The family of four then make their way back to the Impala, still feeling as if they have no idea as to what or who is causing the drownings.

• • •

Dean, Juliet and Sam stand behind the desk at the police station, talking to the Sheriff, Jake Devins while Harlow sits on one of the blue plush chairs, more concerned about finishing her new drawing than what her Mother, Father and Uncle are trying to find out.

"Now, I'm sorry, but why does the Wildlife Service care about an accidental drowning?"

Sam raises an eyebrow at the Sheriffs words. "You sure it's accidental? Will Carlton saw something grab his sister." Jake shakes his head, confused and a bit amused. "Like what?" Jake leads them into his office and motions to the chairs in front of his desk, "Here, sit, please. There are no indigenous carnivores in that lake." --The three hunters sit down on the leather seats while Jake leans against his desk, staring down at the 'Agents'-- "There's nothing even big enough to pull down a person," an amused smirk pulls at his mouth-- "Unless it was the Loch Ness Monster."

Dean lets out a fake laugh, while nodding his head, "Yeah. Right." Juliet and Sam share a wide-eyed look at the sound of Deans fake and forced laughter before the latter of the two turns and glances at Dean, taken back. Jake, however, doesn't seem to notice Deans exaggexaggerated laughter and just shakes his head and sighs. "Will Carlton was traumatized, and sometimes the mind plays tricks. Still-"

Jake moves around his desk and takes a seat in his chair. "We dragged that entire lake. We even ran a sonar sweep, just to be sure, and there was nothing down there." Juliet shifts in her seat and faces the sheriff. "That's weird, though, I mean, that's, that's the third missing body this year." Jake lets out a dejected sigh, "I know. These people are from my town. These are people I care about."

Dean nods his head in understanding, "I know." Jake sighs once more "Anyway...all this...it won't be a problem much longer." The older Winchester Brother raises his eyebrow, curious by the Sheriffs words. "What do you mean?" Jake tilts his head at Dean before eyeing all three of the Hunters. "Well, the dam, of course. It's falling apart, and the feds won't give us the grant to repair it, so they've opened the spillway. In another six months, there won't be much of a lake. There won't be much of a town, either." The sheriffs gaze then turns suspicious. "But as Federal Wildlife, you already knew that."

Before Juliet can come up with an excuse as to why Dean wouldn't know about the dam falling apart, a knock sounds on the door of the Sheriffs office. The four look up to see a young woman standing there with light brunette hair and a fast food bag in her arms. "Sorry, am I interrupting?" The three hunters srand up and smile in greeting at the woman, who smiles at them sheepishly. "I can come back later."

Jake looks to the Woman and smiles while making his way towards her, his arm out, gesturing to her. "Gentlemen, Ma'am, this is my daughter." Dean gives the woman a polite smile, holding his hand out in greeting. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Dean." He shakes her hand, the woman returning the smile as she shakes his hand. "Andrea Barr. Hi."

Jake sees Andreas confusion as to why these three people are in his office. "They're from the Wildlife Service." The confusion is still clear on Andrea's face, so he decides to elaborate. "About the lake."

A look of understanding falls on her features. "Oh." It's then a little boy with light brown floppy hair walks in around Andrea. Juliets face softens at seeing the little boy. She takes a few steps foward and crouches down in front of him, a gentle smile on her face. "Hi there. What's your name?" The boy blinks up at the huntress before walking away and out to the main room, making his way to Harlow who he had noticed was drawing something.

Andrea follows after her Son, shooting Juliet an apologetic look. "His name is Lucas." She then shuts the office door behind her, giving them some privacy. Sam watches -through the window in the door- as Lucas runs up and motions for his Mother to give him something. Andrea smiles, knowing exactly what her Son wants, and hands him some paper and a box of crayons. The taller Winchester Brother watches as the little boy then makes his way back over to his niece and takes a seat beside her, watching her draw for a moment before starting to draw, himself.

Sam looks to Jake, concern shinning in his brown eyes. "Is he okay?" Jake lets out a solem sigh, taking a moment to watch Lucas before turning to Sam to answer his question. "My grandson has been through a lot. We all have." Sam looks as if he's sorry for asking,but before he can voice his apologies, the Sheriff moves from his chair and towards the office door, opening it.

"Well, if there's anything else I can do for you, please let me know."

Dean nods his head in appreciation as he follows Jake out of his office, Juliet and Sam trailing behind him.

A thought crosses Deans mind and he turns to Jake, a smile on his face. "Thanks. You know, now that you mentioned it, could you point us in the direction of a reasonably priced motel?" Andrea answers before her Dad can, "Lakefront Motel. Go around the corner. It's about two blocks south."

Dean looks to his daughter and smiles as he sees her chatting away to Lucas, not even phased by him not replying. Although, Dean could see the boy blinking a lot, he'll have to ask Harlow about that later.

Seeing his daughter having contact with another kid around her age makes his heart swell with warmth. He looks back to Andrea with fake confusion written on his face, wanting to stall them leaving, not wanting to take Harlow away from her new friend. "Two-would you mind showing us?"

Andrea laughs in disbelief, not fooling for his 'confused' act. "You want me to walk you two blocks?" Dean gives a small smile and nods his head. "Not if it's any trouble." Andrea laughs but before she can reply, she hears a childish high-pitched giggle and looks over to see the little girl she had saw when she came in, laughing while Lucas sits next to her, smiling. Something she hasn't seen him do in months.

"Huh?"

The three hunters turn and look where Andrea is looking and soft smiles immediately fall on all three of their faces. Juliet, curious as to why Andrea looks shocked, turns back to the woman with a brown eyebrow raised, "What?" The Barr woman looks at Juliet and smiles sheepishly, not realising that she had voiced her shock. "It's just...I've never seen Lucas smile and take to someone like that before."

Juliets smile widens as she look back to her daughter, their own little ball of sunshine. "That's our Harlow for you, she's like a social butterfly as well as a little ball of light." Andrea turns to Juliet, "She's yours?" The Huntress feels Dean place his arm around her waist and smiles as he pull her closer to his side. "She's ours."

Andrea looks between Dean and Juliet before looking to Harlow and then looking back to the little girls parents again. She can see it now, the resemblance between the Mother and Father and their child. The little girl, who she now knows is called Harlow, has Deans eye color as well as his nose, while she has her mothers hair, lip shape and cheek bones.

"Well, seeming as our children now look to be inseparable, looks like you have no choice but to show us to that motel." There is no malice in Deans words, only teasing.

Andrea, hearing the light tone in the Hunters voice, playfully sighs with reluctance, but smiles at the Mother and Father of Harlow -who seems to now be a friend of her Sons- always happy to make new friends, herself.

"I'm headed that way anyway."

Andrea looks at her father through his open office door and gestures to Lucas while Dean and Juliet usher Harlow over, silently telling her that they are now leaving.

"I'll be back to pick up Lucas at three."

She then turns to her Son, a smile on her face.

"We'll go to the park, okay, sweetie?"

Lucas remains silent but does something he's never done before, he blinks twice at his mother. Harlow notices this and beams at him before explaining to Andrea why he had done that when seeing the confusion on her face.

"While you wewe having youw gwown up talk, Lucas came up to me and because he doesn't talk, I came up with an idea for him to use. Bwink twice for wes and Bwink wonce fow no."

Well, that saves Dean from having to ask his daughter the question he wanted to ask her earlier.

Andrea looks down at the little girl in surprise. How had she, his own mother, never thought of that? She had just assumed that, with what had happened to cause Lucas to go mute, he wouldn't want to communicate in any way but it seems she was wrong. The Barr woman laughs in amazement before dropping a kiss on her Sons head and walking out of the building, gesturing for the family of four to follow her.

Dean smiles at Jake and waves to him as they leave. He then looks to Harlow to see her waving goodbye to Lucas, like he had done to Jake. The Sheriff nods goodbye before looking to the youngest Winchester Brother who gives Jake a small smile. "Thanks again."

When they exit the building, Dean grabs Harlows hand and turns her to face him before bending down to her height. "I'm so proud of you, you know that?" The little Winchester girl beams at her Fathers words and nods her head "I know, Daddy. You tell me all the time." Dean laughs and brushes the back of his hand against her rosy cheek, a soft smile on his face. "Good. Don't you ever forget it." Harlow nods her head once more before giggling when Dean abrupty picks her up and sets her down on his shoulders, Dean holding her little ankles too make sure she doesn't lose her balance and fall backwards.

Juliet smiles as her little girls laughter echos around the street, the sound like music to her ears. Music that she would never tire of hearing. The brunettes smile widens at seeing the moment between Father and Daughter. She will never not be thankful to have the two of them in her life.

Her family.

—

Authors Note

Aww, Harlow's made a new friend, how SWEET! 🤍❤

Now, I have a feeling some of you may have a go at me for the whole Lucas blinks twice for yes and once for no thing. I know he is mute in this episode until the end but I wanted to have it so Harlow had some way of communicating with him and I feel like, knowing the boy is uncomfortable talking to others' would want to help guide him out of his shell a little bit and help him through what he's going through -[I don'twant it to seem like she's forcing him or pushing him.]- even though they have just met.

She's picked it up from her Uncle Sammy, knowing how being nice towards others can go a long way and how you don't always have to shoot first and ask questions later, like her Mother and Father do. She does however, get her ability to read others from Juliet and her love for pie and obsession with cars [which will be introduced in a later epsiode] from Dean. 🤣

Also, also...When it came to writing that little scene with Dean trying to convince Andrea to show them to the motel, I knew I had to switch it up because Dean wouldn't flirt with her (like he did in the episode) when he's in a commited relationship with someone AND has a kid, at least he wouldn't flirt with other women in this book. I know how some people still like to keep Dean flirty towards other women in their books, even if he's in a relationaship, but I will say this, If there's no way for me to change the scene where Dean is being flirty then he WILL flirt but ONLY to get a rise out of Juliet, to wind her up. [Which will happen rarely]

*sighs* What I'm trying to say is, I changed the flirting between Dean and Andrea and made it so he acted dumb and tried to convince her to walk them to the motel so then Harlow could spend some more time with Lucas, not wanting to deny his daughter contact with someone her age for once nor want to stop his daughter from making friends.

I'm sorry that it has been a while since I last updated this book, since christmas in fact -or was it new years eve/day- I have no clue, but I had a month hiatus to spend it with my family and to just wrap my head around what I may want to accomplish this year. I still can't believe we are in 2023! I remember when I used to think there would be flying cars and robots taking over the world –when I was younger– by this time...strange.

I know that Harlow didn't really speak a lot in this chapter, but don't worry she'll have more things to say as the chapters for this episode goes on.

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed reading this chapter. Please make sure to comment and vote and I'll see you all in the next one. Bye, Love you ALL! 💕