CHAPTER TWO

"I'm fine, Elena." Nycole says as she walks up to the building that she works at.

"You and Stefan have been together for years. This can't be easy." Her sister says, and she stops when she sees the ambulance and all of the emergency responders.

"It's not, but I gotta go." She says. "I just got to work. I'll call you later." She hangs up and then finds someone to ask what's going on.

A woman dressed similarly to her — in a nice blouse, pencil skirt, matching jacket, and a pair of uncomfortable heels — tells her that someone from Tech Support killed himself last night. He somehow managed to rig the microwave so that he could fry his head. He was found this morning.

She goes up to the floor that it happened on to get a look at what's going on. She walks up beside Dean, and he looks down at her.

"Something about this seem not right to you?" He asks the guy standing next to him, on the opposite side that Nycole's on.

"Uh... Yeah, try the whole thing. I'm telling you, man... I'll never eat popcorn again."

"Hey." Nycole taps Dean's arm, and he looks down at her again. "Your elevator buddy's watching us." She whispers, and he looks over to see the guy from Tech Support, Sam, looking right at the two of them.

"Come on. We should get back." Dean says, and she nods. "You got in after me again."

"Yeah." She nods as they make their way to his office. "My sister called this morning, and it's next to impossible to get her off the phone when she's worried." She tells him.

"Why's she worried?"

"Uh, my ex came by last time to get some more of his stuff." She says, and he nods. "He seems to be staying at a motel longer than he intended."

"I'm sorry." He says, and she shakes her head as she looks up at him.

"I'm starting to think it might be for the best." She says. "Sometimes no matter what you feel for someone, you're just not meant for each other. And that's okay."

Nycole walks over to her desk then and gets to work. Dean heads into his office, and she sees some guy from Tech Support walk up a little while later. He's not in there very long when he suddenly runs back out.

"What's going on?" Nycole asks as Dean goes after him.

"Hang on." He calls over his shoulder as he continues to follow the Tech Support guy.

A couple minutes later, she hears yelling and then quickly runs over, but stops just outside of the men's restroom. "Dean?!" She calls.

"Get in here! Call 9-1-1!" He yells, and she opens the door.

"Oh my God." Her eyes widen when she sees the Tech Support guy on the floor with a pencil sticking out of his throat, and Dean kneeling down beside him.

The brunette pulls her phone out of her pocket as she turns away from the scene. Then she sees all of the soap all over the place. It looks like the dispensers all turned on by themselves and wouldn't shut off. She quickly talks to someone on dispatch about the situation.

—

"No. I, uh— I followed him into the bathroom." Dean's telling two of the officers on scene. "He was, uh... He was standing there in front of the mirror, and then..." He pauses when he sees Sam and Nycole looking at each other — he's confused, and she's uncomfortable with the whole thing. "...and, uh, he stabbed himself in the neck. I'm sorry, that's, um..."

Dean ends up back in his office, and Nycole follows him in. "You wanna hear a stupid question?" She asks, and he looks over at her. "You alright?"

"Um..."

"Yeah." She nods. "Like I said — stupid question."

"You wanna hear something crazy?" He asks, and she raises her eyebrows.

"Crazier than what just happened?"

"I think we should talk to that Tech Support guy."

"The one who asked you if you believe in ghosts and vampires?" She questions, and he nods.

"Yeah. You remember his name?" He asks.

"Uh... Sam Wesson, I think. I remember the gun part for sure. I thought it was kinda funny given your name." She tells him, and he just looks at her. "Smith and Wesson."

"Right." He nods, still distracted by what happened in the men's room, he picks up his phone while he looks for the right guy to call.

After he gets off the phone, he looks back at her. "Uh, I need to..." He pulls at his shirt, and she nods, knowing he means that he needs to change out of the one that he's wearing because it has blood on it.

"I'll be at my desk." She says and then walks out of the office.

Sam comes up soon after and they both walk into Dean's office as he's finishing with the buttons on his new shirt. "Come on in, shut the door." He tells them, and Sam does.

"What's going on?" Nycole asks.

"Who the hell are you?" Dean asks Sam, and the latter scoffs.

"I'm not sure I know." He says, and the brunette's eyebrows furrow as she looks between the two men.

"What the hell does that mean?" He questions.

"Sam Wesson. I started here three weeks ago." He says, and Dean nods.

"Alright. You cornered me in the elevator, talking about ghosts. And now..." He looks away from them, not wanting to finish.

"Now what?"

"Now nothing. I, uh..." He shifts uncomfortably. "So, you started working here three weeks ago, huh?" Dean asks, and Sam nods. "Me too."

"Me too." Nycole mutters, and then Dean starts rambling about some master cleanse detox that he's been doing. He looks freaked out.

"When you were in that bathroom with Ian... Did you see something?" Sam asks, and Dean doesn't seem to want to talk about this.

"I don't know. I don't know what I saw." He tells them.

"Hey, what happened with the soap dispensers?" Nycole asks, and he just looks at her.

"Wait, are you saying that— Did you...see a ghost?" Sam asks.

"I was freaking out." He tries to reason. "The guy penciled his damn neck."

"You did, didn't you? Okay, listen. What if these suicides...aren't suicides?" He asks. "I mean, w-what if there's something...not natural?"

"So, what? Ghosts are real?" Dean asks as he stands up straight. "And they're responsible for all the dead bodies around here? Is that what you're telling me?" He questions, and they all sit in the chairs around the big desk.

"I know it sounds crazy."

"Ya think?" Nycole shakes her head.

"But, yes, that's what I'm telling you." Sam continues as he looks between the two of them.

"Uh-huh. Based on what?" Dean questions.

He hesitates before he answers. "Instinct."

Dean shakes his head as he looks down. "I have the same instinct." He says, and then looks at Nycole. "And I think you do too, or you would've bolted and put in for a transfer by now." He says, and she just nods.

"Seriously?" Sam asks, somewhat surprised as he looks at them. "You know those dreams I was telling you about? I was dreaming about ghosts."

"Yeah?"

"And then it turns out that there's a real ghost."

"So, what you're telling us is that your dreams are special visions, and you're some kind of psychic?" Nycole questions.

"No. I mean..." Sam scoffs. "That would be nuts."

"At least we agree on something."

"I— I'm just saying, something weird is definitely going on around here, right?" He asks, and they nod. "So, I've been digging around a little. I think I found a connection between the two guys."

Dean takes the two papers that Sam's handing over to him, and he looks at them. "You broke into their email accounts?" He questions.

"I used...some skills that I happen to have to...satisfy my curiosity."

"Nice." He says, and Sam chuckles.

"Yeah. Okay. So, it turns out Ian and Paul both got this same email telling them to report to H.R., room 1444." Sam tells them.

"H.R.'s on seven." Nycole says, confused.

"Exactly."

Dean looks between the two of them and sighs. "Should we go check this out?"

"Like, right now?" Sam asks.

"No. No, it's getting late. You're right." He says as he looks at the papers on his desk, but then looks back at them.

"I am dying to check this out right now."

"Right?" Dean asks, and Nycole chuckles as she looks between the two men.

The three of them go up to the fourteenth floor and then start looking around for room forty-four. They hear screaming and quickly follow it to the room that they're looking for.

Sam kicks the door in when it won't open, and then they all run into the room. They see a guy in the same color shirt as Sam under a fallen shelf, and the boys quickly move to pick it up off of him.

"Dean!" Nycole yells when an old man suddenly appears behind him, but the man grabs Dean and throws him into a different shelf. Then he does the same to Sam.

Nycole rushes over to Dean, and they look up at the ghost as electricity seems to move through its fingers. She looks around for any weapon that she can find and then picks up a rusted wrench from a shelf. She gets up and swings it through the ghost's head, and it suddenly disappears.

Once it's gone, the old TVs in the room all shut off and the boys get the shelf off of the other Tech Support guy. Sam then looks at Nycole.

"How'd you know how to do that?" He asks.

"I have no idea." She shakes her head.

—

"Holy crap." Dean says as he walks past the other two, who are leaning against the back of his couch. He's drinking another one of those juice cleanse drinks now that he's checked in on his kids. His sister got them to bed before he got home; she's in bed too.

"Yeah." Sam nods. "I could use a beer."

"Oh, sorry, man. I'm on the cleanse. I got rid of all the carbs in the house." He tells him.

"Hey, how the hell did you know that ghosts are scared of wrenches?" He asks as he looks at Nycole.

"I didn't know that would work." She tells him. "I just kinda...did it."

"Crazy, right?" Dean says as he hands them each a water bottle. "And nice job kicking in that door too." He tells Sam. "That was very Jet Li. What are you — like, a black belt or something?"

"No." He laughs. "I have no clue how I did that. It's like...we've done this before."

"What do you mean before? Like Shirley MacLaine before?" He asks.

"You like references, don't you?" Nycole asks, and Dean shrugs, a small smile on his face as he looks at the amused expression on hers.

"I just can't shake this feeling like I— Like I don't belong here, do you know what I mean?" Sam asks. "Like I should do something more than sitting in a cubicle."

"I think most people who work in a cubicle feel that same way." She says, and Dean chuckles as he looks at her.

"No. Well, look, it's more than that." He says as he stands up straight. "Like— Like I don't like my job. I don't like this town. I don't like my clothes."

"Well, I hate these shoes, so..." Nycole looks at heels on her feet.

"I don't like my own last name." He continues, not paying attention to her comment as he walks past them. "I-I don't know how else to explain it, except that... It feels like I should be doing something else. There's just...something in my blood. Like I was destined for something different."

"Well, I don't believe in destiny."

"So, you never feel that way?" He asks as he looks between the two of them. "Either of you?"

"I'm with her, I don't believe in destiny." Dean tells him as he leans against the couch beside Nycole. "I do believe in dealing with what's right in front of us though."

"Alright." Sam nods. "So, what do we do?"

"We do what I do best, Sammy. Research."

"Okay." He agrees, and then Dean starts to walk past him. "Did you just call me Sammy?" He asks, confused.

"Did I?" Dean asks.

"I think you did. Yeah. Don't." He shakes his head and then walks away from him.

"Sorry."

"Well, I think it's cute." Nycole says as she looks at the taller boy. "Sammy." She laughs when he turns to shoot her a dirty look.

Dean smiles as he looks back over at Nycole. He loves the way her laugh sounds, and that little glint in her eyes at teasing Sam — he'd give anything to keep this girl in his life.