"Holy shit, man, you're so fucking dramatic," Emma says, whispering so none of the hospital staff or visitors can hear her. "If you hadn't just saved their kid, they'd probably start just fucking screaming if they saw your wings"

Castiel chuckles at the thought. "I'm glad I did save him, then."

"Not as glad as they are, I'm sure," James says. "As much as I would've rather been looking for a case, I'm glad you guys dragged us here. That was kinda sweet, in a weird way."

"Oh, no, not James getting sappy," Emma says teasingly.

"Shut up."

"Agents!"

The three stop when they hear the word, and it only takes a few moments for them to see a police officer quickly walking towards them.

"Hi?" Emma says uncertainly.

"I'm glad I caught you," he says. "You're here about the shooting at the mall, right?"

"Uh..." James glances at his partners before giving an awkward, "Yeah. We are."

"Well, someone caught a video of the guy," the officer says. "If that's something you're interested in. I just don't want you going back empty handed."

James gives him a halfhearted smile. "Thank you. We would love to check it out."

"Awesome," he says. "Meet me at the station?"

"Will do."

As the officer walks away, it's more than apparent that the officer is thrilled to have been of service. Hopefully, he won't find out that he's not actually helping the real FBI, because he seems overjoyed.

"Are we actually going to pretend to be interested in a normal human case?" Emma asks quietly.

"Gotta play the part, you know?" James says. "If we ever want the option of taking a real case here in the future, better not to admit we're faking our status."

"Can we please just go?" Emma asks, almost whining the question.

"Come on, Emma, you're the one that made drive for hours to get here," he reminds her. "I'm asking for half an hour of your life, tops."

"Can you drop me at a motel first?" she asks.

"Why are you being so difficult?" James asks, exasperated.

"Do you really want to watch a video of a man shooting innocent people?" Castiel asks. He personally doesn't mind, but he can see where Emma's coming from.

James sighs. "No, but I also want the freedom to hunt wherever I feel it's necessary, and Rhode Island may be one of those places in the future."

"But why can't you leave me at a motel?" she asks.

"Because that would be suspicious," he says.

"You don't have to watch it," Castiel says. "You can just stare at a wall while it plays. No one will know the difference."

Emma looks between the two, then groans. "Fine. Let's go watch the stupid video."

~~

"You guys caught the shooter, right?" James asks the officer as he leads them through the station.

"We did," he replies. "Guy was sitting at home faking a cold. Pretended he had no idea what happened."

"So you didn't catch him at the mall?" Castiel asks.

"Well, no, but the pictures and videos are clear as day," he says. "It was definitely him. We've got eye witnesses and everything."

"Right..." Castiel glances at James, who shakes his head. The hunter is probably right — this is just an ordinary human thing. They seem to happen all the time. He'll probably go for the insanity plea in court, and that's why he's faking the memory loss. No one said mass murders weren't very smart.

"Anyway, here we are," the officer says, letting them into a dark room and closing the door behind them. It almost seems suspicious until he turns the light and the previously hidden monitor on, and the video is already cued up.

As soon as the video begins to play, Castiel glances down to see Emma quickly look away from the screen. He reaches down and takes her hand in what he hopes is a comforting gesture. She looks up at him with a small, grateful smile before averting her gaze again, pointedly looking away from the monitor.

Castiel looks back to the video just as he sees a small flash of light. He drops Emma's hand and makes his way to the keyboard to back the video up a few seconds.

"What is it?" James asks.

Castiel skims through the video, just a few frames at a time, so briefly that he accidentally passes by what he was looking for. He backs it up frame by frame, then takes a step back so everyone can see.

"Is that...?" James looks at Castiel for confirmation, and he nods.

"What are you looking at?" the officer asks. "Not the camera flare, right?"

At the sound of those words, Emma looks at the monitor, too, just long enough to confirm what he said.

"Thank you, officer," Castiel says. "This has been very helpful. I think that's all we'll need."

"Are you sure?" he asks, confused. "There's still another 30 seconds or so left."

"I'm sure," Castiel says. "Thank you for your time."

"Um... you're welcome?"

Castiel leads the hunters out of the room. No one speaks at first. It's dead silent until everyone is in the car. But, once the doors are closed, they all say it in unison.

"Shifter."