Wishful Thinking
"It just doesn't make any sense, Dean." Sam said as we sat at a table in a restaurant. "I mean, why would Uriel tell me you remembered hell if you didn't?"
Dean downed another shot, placing the empty glass back down. "Maybe because he's a dick." He suggested. "Hey, can I have one? Thanks." He grabbed a fry from the plate in front of Evie.
She slapped his hand. "No."
"Maybe. But he's still an angel." Sam insisted.
"Yeah, an angel who was ready to level an entire town. Look, I don't know what--" Dean stopped himself when the waiter walked up.
"Radical. What else can I get you guys?" He asked.
"Uh, I think we're good." Sam answered.
"Yeah? Wanna try a couple of Fryer Bombs or a Chipotle Chili Chonga?"
"Both of those things sound like heart disease waiting to happen." I muttered, handing Wyatt his pacifier back.
"No, no, we're still good." Dean said.
"Okay, awesome." The waiter nodded before walking off.
"He's weird, right?" I asked.
"So weird." Dean agreed. "Sam, honestly, I have no idea why Uriel told you what he did, okay?"
Sam and I shared a look.
"What?" Dean asked.
"Okay, fine. Then look me in the eye and tell me you don't remember a thing from your time down under." Sam said.
Dean rolled his eyes. "I don't remember a thing from my time down under. I don't remember, Sam."
"Dean, we just wanna help."
"You both know everything I do, okay? That's all there is." Dean looked between us.
"Hey." Evie tugged at the sleeve of the dark green Henley Dean wore. "Hey."
"Hey." Dean replied.
She held out a french fry.
"Oh, now we share?"
"Yeah."
"Outstanding. Dessert time? Am I right?" The waiter walked back toward us.
"Dude--" Dean began.
"Listen, bros, you have got to try our Ice Cream Extreme." The waiter continued. "It's extreme."
"No extremities, please." Sam replied. "Just the--"
"Check?" He dropped it on the table. "Alright. Awesome." He walked off.
"Alright, so where do we go from here?" Dean asked.
"Not sure. Looks like it's been pretty quiet lately." Sam stated. "No signs of demon activity, no omens or portents I can see."
"Which has been really nice, so let's not ruin it, shall we?" I asked as I pushed my now empty plate back a little.
"Just the typical smattering of crank UFO sightings and one possible vengeful spirit. Here, check this out." Sam pulled out his laptop and flipping it around for us to see.
Dean ran his hand up and down my back as he ignored the article on the screen.
"Up in Concrete, Washington, eyewitness reports of a ghost haunting the showers of a women's health facility." Sam explained.
Dean choked on his beer.
"The victim claims that the ghost threw her down a flight of stairs." Sam continued as I patted Dean's back as his stilled on mine. "I can see you're very interested."
"Women, showers, we gotta save these people." Dean pulled out his wallet, tossing a few bills on the table.
"Mm-hm, who was the one that just this morning said he didn't want to work today?" I asked. "Oh, right, that was you."
"People are dying, Si. We must save them."
"You are aware that you won't actually get to see woman in the shower, right?" I asked.
"You said that this morning too, but yet it was not true." Dean pointed out.
"Because you're a stalker."
"It's not stalking if you're married to the woman." Dean held up my left hand, waving it around. "Plus, we were having a conversation. Most of the time, people are unaware they're being watched, you were."
___
Dean and I sat on the stairs of the women's health center. He was reading the local paper which had the headline of a man winning a 168-million-dollar lottery.
Sam--who we dropped off at a Chinese restaurant earlier to talk to the woman who had seen the ghost--walked up to us. "Well, you pick up anything?"
"No EMF in the shower or anywhere else. The house is clean." Dean stated as he stood. He offered me a hand as Evie jumped off the second to last stair.
I took his hand, letting him pull me to my feet. "Yeah, the entire place was too normal to be haunted." I gently rubbed Wyatt's back as I had him swaddled against my chest.
"Yeah, I'm not surprised. I kind of got the feeling back there that crazy pushed Mrs. Armstrong down the stairs." Sam replied.
"I gotta tell you, I'm pretty disappointed." Dean stated.
Sam scoffed. "You wanted to save naked women."
"Damn right, I wanted to save some naked women."
"Well, there are no naked women in danger, so our job here is done." I shrugged as Evie grabbed Dean's hand.
A little boy ran past us, followed by four more who were clearly not his friends.
"Run, Forrest, run!" Dean called out after them.
"Sorry, Dean, but I don't think anything's going on around here." Sam said as we stepped onto the pier where a few feet away a man was arguing with a police officer.
"Something's going on." Dean argued.
"Don't you think it--? Don't you think it had to be a bear?" The officer asked as we drew closer.
"Hey, Eve, stay where I can see you." Dean told her.
"Otay." She nodded her head before running off down the pier to the nearest bench.
"I know a damn bear track when I see one." The man snapped. "This thing didn't leave bear tracks. Its feet were huge."
"Now, Gus--"
"It was Bigfoot, Hal, the Bigfoot."
"Gus, you're not talking sense here--"
"There's a Bigfoot out there, damn it, and he's a son of a bitch!"
"Excuse us. FBI." Sam said as we pulled out our badges.
Gus--that man claiming to have seen Bigfoot-- turned to face us.
"What?" Hal--the officer-- asked.
"Yes, sir. We're here about the...That."
"About Bigfoot?"
"That's right." Sam looked over at Gus. "Sir, can you tell me exactly where happened?"
"Yes, I can." Gus said.
____
"What the hell is going on in this town?" Dean asked as we walked down a pathway through the forest. "First there's a ghost that's not real and now a Bigfoot sighting?"
"Well, every hunter worth his salt knows Bigfoot's a hoax." Sam replied.
"Yeah, maybe somebody's pumping LSD into the town water supply." Dean stated.
"Daddy, look." Evie called out from ahead of us.
"What'd you find, kiddo?" Dean asked as we got closer. He lifted her into his arms once we got close enough.
Large footprints were imprinted into the dirt, leading in the other direction.
"Okay, what do you suppose made that?" Dean asked.
"Bigfoot!" Evie exclaimed excitedly.
"She's not wrong. That, uh, is a big foot." Sam said.
"Oh, well, that's a very helpful observation, Sam." I replied, gently rubbing Wyatt's back as he blinked his eyes open.
___
We followed the large footprints through the woods and to a small convenience/liquor store. The door had been ripped from its hinges. Inside was a mess. Snacks, broken glass, and magazines were strewn about the floor.
"So what, Bigfoot breaks into a liquor store jonesing for some hooch?" Dean asked as we walked through the store. He knelt down to look at the broken liquor bottles. "Amaretto and Irish cream. He's a girl drink drunk."
"I like Amaretto." I mumbled.
"Proving my point, sweetheart." Dean smiled as he stood and grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the shelf.
"Hey, check this out." Sam said from the magazine rack as Dean slipped the bottle into his coat.
Dean crossed the room, immediately covering Evie's eyes once seeing what was there. "He took the whole porno rack?" He asked as Sam grabbed a tuft of fur from the shelf. "Well, I'll say it again. What the hell is going on in this town?"
"Something very, very weird." I answered.
After that, we headed back outside, sitting down on the bench outside of the store. We sat in silence, trying to think of anything that could be happening here.
We just sat there.
"I got nothing." Dean spoke up.
"It's gotta be a joke, right?" Sam asked. "Some big ass mother in a gorilla suit?"
"It feels like it is." I agreed.
"Or it's a Bigfoot." Dean argued as Evie slipped out of his arms. "You know, and he's some kind of alcoholo-porno addict."
"That wasn't even a word." I muttered.
"Kind of like a deep woods Duchovny." Dean continued. Evie brushed a strand of hair from her face, but it didn't do much good. "Hey, Eve, come here."
Evie turned back, moving toward us again. "Snack?"
Dean pulled a piece of candy from his pocket, placing it in her hand. "Now, turn around and stay still."
Evie did as she was told as Dean pulled a hair tie from his pocket and gently pulled her hair back into a ponytail.
A little girl no more than nine or ten rode by on a bike with a basket full of items. Something flew out, landing on the pavement as she passed by. We stood, moving to see what it was.
Dean picked up the magazine. "A little young for Busty Asian Beauties."
"A little?" I asked.
We followed the little girl around the back of the store where she placed the box of the missing/stolen liquor and magazines on the back stairs with a note saying sorry.
___
"What is this, like a Harry and the Hendersons deal?" Dean asked as we walked toward the front door of the house where we followed the little girl too. Millie stayed in the car with the kids seeing as we picked her up on our way.
Dean knocked on the door.
The little girl with dark hair in pigtails and overalls on opened the door. "Hello?"
"Hello." Sam replied. "Um...Could we--? You know what, are your parents home?"
"Nope."
"Um...have you seen a really, really furry--?" Dean began, holding up his hand to infer a height of the creature.
The girl gasped. "Is he in trouble?"
"Oh, no, no. We're just...looking for him." I said.
"Because we wanted to make sure he was okay." Sam added.
"Exactly." Dean agreed.
"He's my teddy bear." She told us. "I think he's sick."
"Wow. Uh, amazing, because you know what?" Dean asked. "We are, uh, ahem--we are Teddy Bear doctors." He pulled out a health inspector badge.
"Really? Can you please take a look at him?" She asked.
"Sure, yeah." Sam nodded.
The girl turned and led us into her house.
"Nice one, Dean." I whispered, holding out my hand.
"Thanks." Dean replied, slapping his palm against mine.
The little girl led us up the stairs to the first door in the hall. "He's in my bedroom. He's pretty grumpy." She knocked on the door. "Teddy? There's some nice doctors here to see you." She pushed open the door.
A life size teddy bear--I'm guessing at least Dean's height--sat on the bed, rocking back and forth as he held a half empty whiskey bottle in hand. He was watching world news, hearing about thousands of disasters from all over earth. "Close the frigging door!" He yelled, looking over at us.
The little did close the door, turning to us. "See what I mean?"
Sam, Dean and I shared a look.
"All I ever wanted was a teddy which was big, real, and talked." The little girl continued. "But now he's sad all the time--not 'ouch' sad, but 'ouch in the head' sad--says weird stuff, and smells like the bus."
"Um, little girl--" Dean began.
"Audrey."
"Audrey. How exactly did your teddy become real?"
"I wished for it."
"You wished for it?" I asked.
"At the wishing well." Audrey nodded her head.
Dean stepped forward, opening the door and walking inside.
"Look at this." The Teddy pointed to the tv screen where a news anchor was covering a story of a series of explosions that destroyed a mall. "You believe this crap?"
"Not really." Dean replied.
"It is a terrible world." Teddy looked over at us suddenly, making Dean pulled back a little. "Why am I here?" He asked, sobbing.
"For tea parties." Audrey stated.
"Tea parties?" Teddy repeated with a mocking laugh. "Is that all there is?" He sobbed.
Dean, wide eyed, turned back and stepped out, shutting the door behind him.
"Audrey, give us a second, okay?" Sam asked.
"Okay." She nodded her head.
We stepped across the hall, just out of earshot.
"Are we--? Should we--? Uh--" Sam began. "Are we gonna kill this teddy bear?" He whispered.
"How? Huh? We shoot it, burn it?" Dean asked.
"I don't know." Sam said. "Both?"
"We can't light a teddy bear on fire." I argued.
"How do we know that's gonne work?" Dean asked. "I mean, I don't want some giant, flaming, pissed off teddy on our hands."
"Yeah. Besides, I get the feeling that the bear isn't really the, you know, core problem here." Sam agreed.
"All I know is I'm never looking at Evie's stuffed bunny rabbit the same again." Dean said.
"You regret that gift now?" I asked.
"If it doesn't turn into a giant, alcoholic, depressed Thumper I think we're good."
"Audrey, where are your parents?" Sam asked as we turned back to the girl.
"My mom wished they were in Bali, so I think they're in Bali." Audrey answered.
"Okay, I'm really sorry to have to break this to you, but your bear is sick." Sam said. "Yeah, he's got...."
We all paused for a moment.
I mean, what kind of sickness could a teddy bear have?
"Lollipop disease." Dean spit out.
"Lollipop disease." Sam and I repeated with a nod.
"It's not uncommon for a bear his size." Dean continued. "But see, it's really contagious."
"Right, so you should probably go stay with someone else." I added.
"Yeah, so is there a grownup you can stay with while we treat him?" Sam asked.
"Mrs. Hurley lives down the street." Audrey told us.
"Perfect." Dean said.
"Good. Yeah, good. We'd like you to stay there for a few days, okay?" Sam told her.
"Okay." Audrey nodded her head.
"Oh, and, uh, Audrey...where is this wishing well?" Dean asked.