Burn It to the Ground

Maura’s POV.

“We’re sorry,” Sam said in a caring tone. “Thank you for your time.” I raised an eyebrow at my sister, were we really going to give up that easily? She just shrugged. The man nodded, turning swiftly back to whatever he had been doing before we got there. I didn’t like him; he was too pissy and smelled like ashes. As we exited the bar, I saw Dean lean over to mutter something to Sam, an irritated look on his face. “We’ll figure something out, we always do.” Figure something out hell.

Me and Kass were walking a few paces ahead of them, making it to my car before they made it to theirs. Kass pulled out the laptop from under the seat, starting up and somehow accessing the internet all the way out there. With a few clicks of the mouse, she apparently found what she needed. “Laura Lovegood‘s mother, 102 West Maplewood Rd. Her name is Rachael” She called out simply, closing the laptop once again and hiding it safely. When she turned back, the boys were staring at her.

“How did you do that?”

I smiled proudly as she shrugged all modest. “Found her on her daughter’s Myspace, tracked the IP address from one of her posts.” as if it were no big deal. Which I guess for us it wasn’t.

Dean looked more confused, and possibly a little excited, than Sam. “Myspace…The porn site?” He took a wild guess, earning an exasperated sigh from everyone and was ultimately ignored.

“Alright…Well, we can start with that first.” I swung the door to the firebird open, my sister already hopping in after giving Dean a wink. Good god, I felt nauseous.

I rolled my eyes. “We’ll meet you there.” Sam said, smiling that damned ‘Aren’t I so freakin’ innocent?’ smile. I mumbled a reply and got in the car, rolling the window down. “Yeah, we’ll be there unless Kassia has to puke again.” I laughed as my sister punched me, and not in a playful fashion. I was going to have a bruise.

We were mentally preparing ourselves for the possibility of dealing with nosy neighbors, cops, or worse: Grieving families. I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road smoothly, avoiding hitting a stray cat. There was something on my mind though, something that had been nagging at me since last night when my sister had raced out of the Winchester's motel room like hell was after her and the oldest brother followed her, actually apologizing from bringing up the one subject that could make her close up like a clam. I had been worried from the time we had met them in the diner, yeah, but that was only a lazy caution compared to what I was feeling now.

"So, you're not getting too attached to you-know-who, are you?" Blunt? Perhaps. Nosy? Perhaps. Necessary? Yes.

Kassia glanced at me out of the corner of her eyes, her face suddenly completely blank. "'Course not, you know it’s just physical." The empty tone of her voice told me she didn‘t believe a word she said. "So," I pried, trying to keep my own tone casual. "You'll have no problem when we finish up this case and split, huh?" My sister had a bad habit of getting attached to people, letting them get too close. Even after all the times it had come back to bite her in the ass, she still unconsciously did it. I tried time and time again to keep her away from people that could play on that, but since she was old enough to talk it was clear that Kassia was going to do what Kassia wanted to do, and I think sometimes she resented herself for that.

“No. What about you?” It wasn’t the touch of venom in her voice that took me by surprise, it was the question itself. She knew I knew better than that. “Do you remember who you’re talking to?” I laughed, trying desperately to keep this conversation as light as possible. The rest of ride was spent in uncomfortable silence.

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Sam’s POV.

We followed the Firebird to Rachael Lovegood’s home, considering we had forgotten to ask the girls for directions. Why? Because we were too damn busy picturing them naked. I wasn’t proud, though I’m pretty sure my brother was. We spent the drive in silence, which was probably a good thing since, by the look on Dean’s face, he was thinking about a certain redhead.

When we finally got there, we found a small cottage-like house surrounded in flowerbeds and herb gardens. The house was small but well-built and painted white, wind chimes hung in rows along the roof. It looked like one of those houses you saw in magazines or television shows, the kind of simple yet cozy place that people dreamed of retiring to.

“Well this is…Creepy.” I muttered, stepping out of the car and onto the perfectly groomed lawn. Kassia was already up at the front door, talking to an elderly woman in gypsy skirts.

"Mrs. Lovegood, I know this is a very difficult time for you but we'd like to have a word about your daughter." She said, frowning with only half-faked sympathy. The woman looked from her to Maura and then to my brother and me before nodding slowly, holding the door open wide. "I'll put on some tea, there are cookies on the coffee table if anyone’s hungry." She disappeared inside.

"Sweet, cookies." Dean beat everyone inside.

The living room was crowded overstuffed armchairs and pillows, but homey I guess. We sat down about the time she returned, with impressive speed for an elderly person, with a tray of tea. "Now," She rubbed her wrinkly hands together. "You want to know about Laura's murder then, hmm?"