CHAPTER NINE

The hunters are at a diner that's attached to the motel that they stayed at last night, and Dean's looking through the newspaper for a job. Nyx is sitting at the end of the table throwing the little berries that came with her waffles into a cup at the other end.

Their waitress suddenly walks over, standing across from Dean, and rests her hands on the table so that she can lean over in front of him. She's now blocking Nyx's path to throw the fruit into the cup, much to the brunette's annoyance.

"Can I get you anything else?" She asks, and Dean looks up at her.

He sees the young blonde woman in her baby pink spaghetti strap shirt, that's showing an excessive amount of cleavage, and he smiles around the pen that he's biting down on. Her smile widens, pleased that he seems to like her.

"You can get out of my way." Nyx grumbles, her hand making motions like she's going to throw the blueberry.

The blonde looks over at her, obviously annoyed by the interruption. She takes in Nyx's appearance — black leggings, an oversized flannel over a white tank top, her hair in a messy bun, and a piece of bacon hanging out of the side of her mouth.

The waitress scoffs. "Classy." She mutters.

Nyx chuckles as she then bites off a piece of bacon and pulls the rest of it away from her lips. "Sweetheart, I don't have to dye my hair blonde and wear push-up bras to get his attention. I already sleep in his bed every night. Hell, I'm currently wearing his shirt." She tells her, and the waitress looks between the two of them.

Dean's trying not to laugh at the look on the waitress' face. There's a part of him that wants to be annoyed that Nyx just completely ruined his chances with the blonde, but he honestly doesn't really care.

"Can we just get the check please?" Dean asks as Sam walks back over to their table.

"Y-Yeah." The waitress nods and then walks away from them.

"What'd you do to her?" Sam asks.

"Told her the truth." Nyx says as she throws the blueberry — it goes into the cup with all of the others, and she smiles.

"About what?"

"Her chances at sleeping with your brother." She throws a raspberry, and the two boys just look at her. She notices their staring and looks over at them. "What?"

"Nothin'." Dean shakes his head and then looks at Sam. "Here, take a look at this. I think I got one."

"I'll be right back." Nyx says as she gets up from the table and walks away from the two boys, heading for the bathroom on the other end of the diner.

"Dude." Sam nudges his brother when he sees him staring after Nyx instead of explaining the possible case to him.

She's walking back over to their table a couple minutes later and she passes the waitress, who purposely bumps her shoulder. The brunette chuckles and takes Sam's empty seat next to Dean.

"What's so funny?" He asks as she looks at the obituary that he has circled in the newspaper.

"Blondie knocked my shoulder with hers when I walked past her." She tells him and then skims the paper.

It's about an eighteen-year-old girl over in Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin. She drowned in the lake, but authorities didn't find her body when they dragged the water. She's apparently one of three drownings to happen there this year, and none of the other bodies were found either.

"This where we're headed?" Nyx asks as she looks up at Dean.

He nods. "Yeah. We're leaving as soon as Sam gets back from the bathroom."

"M'kay. Hey, is this cold?" She presses the back of her fingers to his neck.

"Yes." He quickly grabs her hand and pulls it off of his skin. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"My hands are always cold after I wash them." She tells him, and he takes both of her hands in his to warm them.

"Friggin' icicles, man, I swear." He mutters, and she chuckles.

—

The boys go to talk to Will Carlton — the brother of the girl that drowned — and Nyx stays​ in the car because Caroline's been calling her non-stop for the past two hours. She apparently has something that she really wants to talk about.

"I got drunk because I'm stupid, and I couldn't get home on my own. So, Matt took me back to my house, and I didn't want to be alone. He stayed the night with me, and I haven't talked to him since." She's telling her, and Nyx is pinching the bridge of her nose as she listens to her friend's story.

She loves​ Caroline​, she really does, but sometimes her drama seems like it's drama just for the sake of having drama.

"Do you like him?" Nyx asks​ her.

"I don't know. I think I could. I mean, he's a great guy. But he's also Elena's ex, and isn't there some kind of code about dating your friend's ex?" She asks. "And what if he doesn't like me?"

"Then it's his loss."

"Nyx, you're not even trying​ to help."

"I'm sorry." She says​ as the boys start getting back into the car. "Look, I really don't think it would bother Elena."

"What about how Matt's avoiding me?"

Nyx moves the phone away from her mouth and sighs​ before holding it back to her ear. "I know being straight forward with your feelings isn't really your thing, but maybe you should just talk to him." The brunette says. "You know, a conversation between two people who have been friends for years. Clear the air, find out what's going on with both of you."

"Just go straight for the rejection, no thank you."

"Caroline, I've gotta go." She tells her. "Talk to Elena first, see what she has to say about the whole thing. Start there."

"Yeah, okay. Bye." She says and then hangs up.

Nyx leans forward then and slides​ her phone into the pocket on Dean's leather jacket. He gives her a puzzled look, and she smiles at him. "I don't want it anymore. It's yours​ now." The brunette says and then sits back and sinks into her seat.

They go straight to the police station from the Carlton house and start talking to the town sheriff about the disappearances. "Now, I'm sorry, but why does the Wildlife Service care about an accidental drowning?" He asks as he leads them to his office.

"You sure it's accidental?" Sam asks him. "Will​ Carlton saw something grab his sister."

"Like what?" He questions. "Here, sit, please." He says as he sits down on the opposite side of his desk. "There are no indigenous carnivores in that lake. There's nothing even big enough to pull down a person, unless it was the Loch Ness monster."

"Yeah, right." Dean chuckles.

"Will Carlton was traumatized, and sometimes the mind plays tricks. Still, we dragged that entire lake. We even ran a sonar sweep just to be sure, and there was nothing down there."

"That's weird though." Dean says as he leans forward. "That's the third missing body this year."

"I know." The sheriff says. "These are people from my town. These are people I care about."

"I know."

"Anyway..." He sighs. "All this — it won't be a problem much longer."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the dam, of course."

"Of course. The dam." Dean sits back in his seat. "It's, uh...sprung a leak."

"It's falling apart, and the Feds won't give us the grant we need 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, but​ as Federal Wildlife, you already knew that."

"Exactly."

"Sorry, am I interrupting?" A woman asks as she walks into the room, and they all stand as they look at her. "I can come back later."

"This is my daughter." The sheriff tells them.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Dean."

"Andrea Barr. Hi." She shakes his hand, smiling up at him.

"Hi."

"They're from the Wildlife Service...about the lake." Her dad tells her.

"Oh."

"Oh, hey, there." Dean greets when a little boy peeks out from behind Andrea. "What's your name?"

He looks down and then turns around and walks away. Andrea turns then and goes after him.

"His name's Lucas." The sheriff says, and Nyx looks at him.

"Is he okay?" The brunette asks him.

"My grandson's been through a lot. We all have." He tells them. "Well, if there's anything​ else I can do for you, please let me know."

"Thanks." Dean says as they walk out of his office. "You know, now that you mentioned it, could you point us in the direction of a reasonably priced motel?"

"Lakefront Motel." Andrea says. "Go around the corner, it's two blocks up."

"Two— You mind showing us?" He asks, and Nyx looks at Lucas. He's drawing.

"You want me to walk you two blocks?"

"Not if it's any trouble." He says, and Sam sighs as he looks up at the ceiling, shaking his head.

"I'm headed that way anyway." She says and then looks at her dad. "I'll be back to pick up Lucas at three. We'll go to the park, okay, sweetie?" She leans down and kisses her son's head, but he doesn't even acknowledge her.

"Thanks again." Sam says as they start to leave.

Dean keeps trying to talk to Andrea, but Nyx isn't paying​ any attention to him. She keeps thinking about Lucas and how distant he seemed, even to his mom. It kinda​ reminds her of how she was after her parents died, only it seems to be a lot worse for him.

They get to the motel, and Sam and Nyx immediately start doing research on his laptop. "So, there's the three drowning​ victims this year." Sam says.

"And before that?" Dean asks, sifting through the clothes in his duffle bag that's sitting on a table behind the other two.

"Yeah, six more, spread out over the past thirty-five years. Those bodies were never recovered either."

"If there's something out there, it's picking up its pace." Nyx says.

"So, what, we got a lake monster on a binge?" Dean asks.

"This whole lake monster theory — it- it just bugs me." Sam says.

"Why?" Nyx asks as she looks at him.

"Loch Ness, Lake Champlain — there are literally hundreds of eyewitness accounts, but here, almost nothing." He explains. "Whatever it is out there, no one's living to talk about it."

"Wait." She turns​ the computer so that she can look at it better. "Christopher Barr."

"Where have I heard that name before?" Dean asks, and she shushes him so that she can read the article on the screen.

"Christopher Barr was Andrea's husband, Lucas' father." Sam says as she pulls up a picture of Lucas. He's soaking wet and wrapped in a towel.

"He took Lucas out swimming..." Nyx says and then keeps reading.

"Lucas was floating on a wooden platform when Chris drowned." Sam says. "It was two hours before the kid got rescued. Maybe we have an eyewitness after all."

"No wonder he's so freaked out." She says​ as she looks at the picture that's attached to the article. "Watching one of your parents die isn't something that you just get over."

Dean rests his hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her, and she takes a deep breath as she glances up at him. She hasn't really told him much about the day of her parents' death, but he knows that it's been hard on her and her family.

—

"Can we join you?" Sam asks Andrea as the three hunters walk over to her at the park.

"I'm here with my son." She says as she glances up at them.

"Oh. Mind if I say hi?" Dean asks and then he starts walking over toward Lucas. Nyx quickly follows after him.

"How's it going?" Dean asks​ Lucas as they kneel down in front of him, but he doesn't say anything or look up.

"My brother draws too. He's really good." The teenager says​ as she looks at what Lucas is drawing. "Your pictures remind me of when he first started drawing when he was around your age."

Lucas still doesn't say anything to them, or acknowledge their presence in any way, and Nyx looks at Dean.

"Oh, I used to love these things." The older boy says as he picks up one of the toy soldiers sitting beside Lucas. He makes noises like the soldier's shooting, and Nyx smiles as she watches him, but Lucas doesn't react. "So, crayons is more your thing? That's cool. Chicks dig artists."

"Just ask my brother." Nyx adds, and Dean chuckles.

"These are pretty good." He says as they look at the pictures that are in a pile on the bench that Lucas is using as a makeshift table.

"They might actually be better than my brother's were when he was your age."

"You mind if I sit and draw with you for a while?" Dean asks Lucas. "I'm not so bad myself." He says, but Nyx knows that that's not true.

"You know, I'm thinking you can hear us. You just don't​ wanna talk." She says as she looks at the little boy. "I don't know exactly what happened to your dad, but I know that it was something real bad. I think I know how you feel. A few months ago, I lost my parents. It was a lot to deal with, and I'm still trying every day. I understand not wanting to talk about it, believe me." She looks down, not knowing​ what to say and she's not entirely sure that he's even listening to her.

"When I was your age, I saw something." Dean starts, and Nyx looks​ up at him. He seems to be remembering it, and then he shakes the thought from his mind. "Anyway... Well, maybe you don't think anyone will listen to you or, uh... Or believe you. I want you to know that we will. You don't even have to say anything. You could draw us a picture about what you saw that day with your dad on the lake." He says, and Lucas just keeps drawing. "Okay, no problem. This is for you."

He shows him the picture that he's been drawing while they were talking to Lucas. There's four people — stick figures — but it's better than anything that Nyx could've done.

"This is my family. That's my dad. That's...my mom. That's my geek brother, and that's me." He points them each out. "Alright, so I'm a sucky artist. I'll see you around, Lucas." He stands up and then holds his hand out to Nyx. She takes​ it and he pulls her up from the ground.

They walk away from Lucas and then head back over to Andrea and Sam. "Lucas hasn't said a word, not even to me." She's saying as they walk up beside her. "Not since his dad's accident."

"Yeah, we heard. Sorry." Dean says, and she nods.

"What are the doctors saying?" Nyx asks.

"That it's a kind of post-traumatic stress." Andrea tells her.

"That can't be easy for either of you."

"We moved in with my dad, he helps out a lot. It's just... When I think about what Lucas went through, what he saw..."

"Kids are strong." Dean tells her. "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." She says with a smile, remembering how he was. "Now, he just sits there, drawing those pictures, playing with those army men. I just wish— Hey, sweetie."

They all look down at Lucas as he holds a picture up between Nyx and Dean. He takes it from him. "Thanks."

"Thanks, Lucas." Nyx says​ as the two of them look at the picture. It's a brown house surrounded by green grass.

The little boy turns around then and walks away again, going back to where he was sitting before. He never even looked up at any of them.