Rakes and Brooms (Supernatural, m) (Secret Santa for @castiel_angel)

[AngelEyes]

Hi @castiel_angel! I'm excited to say I'm your Secret Santa!!! Of course I wanted to do a Supernatural story for you. I debated between just doing a fun fluff piece or actually putting together a case, but I thought a case would be more fun and had this idea, so I hope you like it! It's my first time writing Supernatural so I hope I do it justice! As for timeline, I don't have a specific setting for it other than probably earlier on the series when they were doing more individual cases rather than big story arcs, and they still have a little innocence to them, not so hardened by it all. This will be in multiple parts. This first part doesn't really have much sneezing, it's more the set up for everything, but I promise, it's coming! Anyway, enough rambling, Here you go!!!

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Sam Winchester looked up from his laptop as his brother Dean entered the hotel room carrying two sacks of take out. Dropping them on the table he proclaimed, “They had these totally awesome loaded burgers, so I got two! But I know you’re lame so I brought you a salad.”

 

Sam rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I think I found us a case. Westby, Wisconsin. In the last couple weeks there have been two farms where everybody there has suddenly gotten sick with a mysterious illness and died within a matter of days.”

 

Dean took a moment to swallow a giant bite of hamburger before replying. “You don’t think it’s just a bad case of the flu going around?”

 

“I don’t think so. First, doctors don’t know what it actually is. Second, it’s isolated to these two farms, but affects everyone on them.”

 

“Huh. Could be something. Might as well take a look.”

 

The impala rolled into Westby the next afternoon. After dropping their stuff at the Westby House Inn, the brothers headed to the morgue. Inside they found an older gentleman wearing a lab coat. Dean strode forward. “Hi there. I’m Dr Harkness and this is my associate Dr Jones. We’re here from the CDC. We heard you had some unusual deaths recently and came to see if we could help out.”

 

The man put out a hand, “I’m Dr Larsen. I have to admit it’s been an odd couple of weeks. I’m not too proud to say I wouldn’t mind your input on things.”

 

“Great. Why don’t you fill us in,” Sam encouraged.

 

“Well, it started at the Olsen farm. June 3rd, Mrs Olsen called 911 saying that her husband was dead. When the ambulance got there they found him dead in their bed. Mrs Olsen herself, and her daughter Emma were both very ill. They were taken to the hospital. When the doctors talked to her, she told them that they had all three suddenly become ill two days before. Emma passed away that night and Mrs Olsen the next day.”

 

“So you examined all three of them? What was the cause of death?” Dean asked.

 

“In the parents it was respiratory arrest, but in Emma it was cardiac arrest.”

 

“Do you know what caused it?”

 

“Mr Olsen appears to have suffered pneumoconiosis. Which is damage from inhaling harmful substances, like asbestos or coal dust. But he had no history of interaction with anything like that. Mrs Olsen had pulmonary edema but I didn’t find a specific cause. Emma had dilated cardiomyopathy, but I’ve never seen that in someone so young. It was all very strange.”

 

“That is strange,” Sam agreed. “You had a second set of deaths, I believe. Tell us about those.”

 

“June 8th, William Berg brought his wife Anna into the ER. She had a high fever and trouble breathing. They admitted her with acute pneumonia. That night he came back in with his son Liam and daughter Sophie who had fevers and rashes. They were diagnosed with measles, despite having been vaccinated when younger. Anna died on the 9th. William came down with a fever and was diagnosed with bronchitis. Liam and Sophie both died on the 10th. There was a 911 that day at their farm from a friend that had gone over to check on things and found their farm hand Jonas dead. I found he died from cardiac arrest, but I couldn’t determine a specific cause. That night William’s fever spiked and they found the infection had turned septic and he was dead by morning.”

 

“Wow. Have you ever seen anything like it before?”

 

“I’ve seen families all become ill, but never with such different illnesses all at once. And usually not such normally healthy people all pass away from relatively treatable illnesses. It definitely has me stumped.”

 

“Ok. Thanks for your time. We’ll be looking into things. If we have any more questions, we’ll be back.” They shook the doctor’s hand and headed back out to the impala. “That definitely sounds like it could be something for us. Why don’t we go check out the farms,” Dean suggested.

 

They headed to the Olsen farm first. It was small, consisting of a small farmhouse and simple barn that housed tractors and equipment. They didn’t find anything out of the ordinary, so they moved on to the Berg’s. Their farm was larger, with multiple barns and outbuildings. They were in a barn that was obviously set up for horses, although the horses themselves were apparently out in the fields, when Sam heard Dean sneeze from a back room. Concerned, he made his way to the doorway and began laughing. Dean stood in what must be the tack room, shoving at a large orange cat with his foot. The cat didn’t seem much deterred by this treatment, apparently bent on making friends with the new human. “HatSSHCHihh! HatSSSHHCHiiiihh! Damn cat!” He growled.

 

“Bless you! I don’t see anything here. Let’s go to the house. You can leave your friend here,” Sam grinned. Inside the house Sam headed upstairs to the bedrooms while Dean took the downstairs, kitchen and living room. After a thorough search they met back up in the entry. “I don’t see anything unusual. What are we looking for anyway?”

 

“I don’t know,” Dean shrugged. “No sign of sulfur, so probably not demons. Could be witches, but I didn’t find any hex bags, how about you?”

 

Sam shook his head. “Nothing. It’s getting late. Let’s head back to the hotel. I’ll poke around online some more and we can start talking to people who the families tomorrow.”

 

Sam led the way out to the impala. Dean was following him when he looked towards the end of the driveway and saw the figure of an old woman, hunched over, shrouded in black robes, holding a gardening rake. They stared at each other for a moment before Dean turned, calling out to Sam, “Hey, do you see that?”

 

Sam looked back at him, but when Dean turned back towards the road, the woman was gone. “See what Dean?”

 

“I thought I saw someone. I swear she was just there.”

 

Sam looked concerned. “What did they look like?”

 

Dean looked confused. “Just an old woman. Wearing black. She was carrying some sort of rake. It was creepy.”

 

“Weird. There’s no one there now. Let’s get out of here.”

 

[castiel_angel]

Ohmygod ohmygod OHMYGOD!!! I love where this is going! I’m just so excited for this! Don’t even get me started with the Dean/cat interaction! And this is your first time writing SPN? It’s great. Wait no, scratch that, FANTASTIC!! Thank you so much!😍

Edited January 1, 2019 by castiel_angel
Dean-o being a cutie

[Shamaël]

You write Dean so, so, so well!!! I love his first line with the double burger and the salad for Sam.

On 1/1/2019 at 12:23 AM, AngelEyes said:

In the last couple weeks there have been two farms where everybody there has suddenly gotten sick with a mysterious illness and died within a matter of days.

... Okay, I have no idea whether you're going to follow that path or not but medical mysteries are one of my favorite things, so I can't thank you enough for this!

On 1/1/2019 at 12:23 AM, AngelEyes said:

The cat didn’t seem much deterred by this treatment, apparently bent on making friends with the new human.

 Yes, that's how cats are. They ALWAYS chose the person who's allergic or afraid of cats.

On 1/1/2019 at 12:23 AM, AngelEyes said:

I debated between just doing a fun fluff piece or actually putting together a case, but I thought a case would be more fun and had this idea, so I hope you like it! It's my first time writing Supernatural so I hope I do it justice! As for timeline, I don't have a specific setting for it other than probably earlier on the series when they were doing more individual cases rather than big story arcs, and they still have a little innocence to them, not so hardened by it all. This will be in multiple parts.

I had to quote your introduction because 1) a case is the best, 2) don't worry about writing SPN for the first time, you're great, 3) I love stories when the boys are still, as you say, "innocent" and 4) Multiple parts, yeeeeessss!!!

[AngelEyes]

On 12/31/2018 at 11:57 PM, castiel_angel said:

I love where this is going! I’m just so excited for this!

Yay!!! I'm so happy you like it! I had to throw in the cat interaction, because it's actual Canon, and one of my favorite things! I'm really having fun writing this, so here's the next part. 

 

14 hours ago, Aliena H. said:

You write Dean so, so, so well!!!

Thank you! I'm actually finding it pretty easy falling into their characters, so this is a lot of fun!

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Sam was woken the next morning by the sound of Dean sneezing. He looked over to see Dean blearily rubbing at his nose. “Bless you.” Dean just grunted in reply, which apparently was a bad idea because he broke into a coughing fit. Sam watched in concern until it passed before asking, “Hey man, you ok?”

 

“Yeah. I’m good,” he replied, brushing it off. “I’m gonna hit the shower.” Once they were both showered and dressed, they headed out to the impala. “I saw a cafe down the street. We can get some breakfast and chat up the locals.” They grabbed a booth at Borgens Cafe. “Well, good morning, Elise,” Dean put on his cheesiest grin as he read the young waitress’s name tag.

 

She blushed as she asked, “What can I get you two?”

 

“I’ll take the Daily Double. And coffee.” Dean winked at her.

 

Looking up from the menu Sam said, “I’ll try the Veggie Lefse Wrap.”

 

When the waitress walked away, Dean scoffed, “What even is a “Lefse Wrap” anyway?”

 

“It’s scrambled eggs and vegetables wrapped in Lefse.” At Dean’s continued blank look he added, “Lefse is a Norwegian flatbread. Kind of like a crépe.”

 

“Well, ok then. I’ll keep my big fluffy pancakes, thank you very much.” Dean answered as the waitress set down his plate heaped with eggs, pancakes, bacon, and sausage, next to Sam’s more delicate looking breakfast. The waitress returned as they were finishing their plates. Dean grabbed one of the menus and pointed at the bottom, “Don’t forget the pie!”

 

Sam rolled his eyes. “Dean, it’s breakfast!”

 

“Sam, it’s pie!” He turned to the side bringing up an elbow and sneezing. “HatSSHCH! HatSSHCHihh!”

 

“Bless you! It’s the best pie in the county, and fresh out of the oven,” the waitress smiled at Dean.

 

Dean gave Sam a triumphant look. “Fresh out of the oven, Sam. I will take a piece, please!”

 

When she brought it out he looked at it with appreciation before taking a bite. With mouth still full he mumbled, “Thish ish fantashtic!”

 

“Dean, don’t talk with your mouth full!” Sam reprimanded before turning to the waitress. “So Elise. We’re with the CDC and we’re looking into the recent illnesses in town. Did you know either the Olsen or Berg families?”

 

Her look turned serious. “Yeah, the Olsens came in here all the time. I used to babysit for Liam and Sophie Berg. And Jonas, he worked for them, he was in my class. I still can’t believe he’s dead.”

 

“Can you tell me what kind of people they were? I mean, was there anything unusual about any of them? Any reason someone would want something bad to happen to them?”

 

“No, they were just ordinary people. They got along with everybody. The Olsens were in church every Sunday. The Bergs did a lot of volunteer work in the community when they weren’t busy on the farm. The kids were good kids, I never had any problems when I watched them. Jonas got good grades in school and could have gotten into a good college but he really just wanted to be a farmer and was really happy when they took him on full time out there.”

 

“Ok. Thanks a lot, Elise.” Sam turned back to Dean as she walked away. He had finished the pie and sat with a look of bliss on his face. “What do you think?”

 

“I think, hang on, Ha Ha HatSSHCH! HATSSSHHCH! HatSSHCHihh!” He sneezed into the crook of his elbow before grabbing a napkin to wipe his nose.

 

“Bless you.” Sam gave him a sharp look, “Are you ok?”

 

“I’m fine. What? Can’t a guy sneeze for no reason?” Dean said annoyed.

 

“Yeah, it’s just… fine, nevermind.” Sam gave up the argument. “What were you going to say?”

 

“I think we should go talk to the neighbors. See if they heard or saw anything.”

 

“Sounds like a plan.” Sam threw some bills down on the table and they left the cafe, Dean giving a little wave to the waitress.

 

They stopped by both of the Berg’s neighbors but neither had seen or heard anything unusual. The Olsen’s first neighbor wasn’t home so they headed to the other side. They pulled the impala in the drive and an older man wearing jeans and a flannel shirt came out. “Hi there. I’m Henrik. What can I do for you boys?”

 

Dean walked around the front of the car as Sam unfolded himself from the passenger seat. “Hi. I’m Dr Harkness and this is Dr Jones. We’re with the CDC. We’re looking into the illnesses in town recently. We understand your neighbors, the Olsens, passed away a couple weeks ago.” He suddenly spun to the side and sneezed harshly. “HatSSHCHihh! HatSSHCHihh! HatSSSHHCHiiiihh! Sorry!” he said turning back. “Can you think of anything strange or unusual going on the area around that time?”

 

“Bless you!” Both Sam and Henrik said at the same time. Henrik looked thoughtful. “Not much goes on around here. Pretty peaceful like.”

 

“Have you seen any new people around you don’t recognise?” Sam asked.

 

“I know everybody around here.” Pausing, he started again. “Come to think of it, back on, must have been June 1, I remember cause that was when I picked up the new parts for the tractor and it was on my way back. As I passed their drive I thought I saw someone standing there at the end, but when I turned back to look there wasn’t nobody there.”

 

Sam and Dean exchanged looks. “What did this person look like?”

 

“Well, it was weird. I could’ve swore I saw an old lady standing there holding a broom. Which is why I turned back to look again. But I must have imagined it cause she was gone.”

 

Dean looked at him intently. “Was she wearing black?”

 

“Why, yes, she was.”

 

“And you say she had a broom? Not a rake?” Dean questioned further.

 

“It was a broom. I remember thinking what a strange thing to be carrying around out on a driveway. But it must have been all in my imagination anyway.” He shrugged.

 

Sam looked at Dean who seemed to be lost in thought before turning to the farmer. “Henrik. Thank you so much for your help. We’ll let you know if we have any other questions.

 

Back in the impala Dean said, “That sounds exactly like what I saw when we were leaving the Bergs last night. Only my lady had a rake.”

 

“Ok. That’s definitely suspicious.” He paused, watching Dean’s eyes go distant and his nose twitch. “Are you going to…”

 

He was interrupted by Dean sneezing wetly. “Hah HatSSSHHCHiiiihh! Hah HatSSSHHCHiiiihh!”

 

Sam opened the glove box and handed him some take out napkins. “How are you feeling?” He asked studying his brother while he blew his nose.

 

“I’m fine Sam. Quit giving me that look, like my head’s going to explode or something.”

 

“It’s just, Dean. We’re on this case. With these mysterious illnesses. That people are dying from. And now it looks like you might have seen the same thing that was hanging out at these peoples farms around the time they got sick. And you’re sneezing…”

 

“Sam. I’m fine. So I sneezed a few times. No big deal. But if it’ll make you feel better, why don’t we go to the hospital where the victims were seen and I’ll let them take a look at me while we ask them questions. How’s that sound?” He asked placatingly.

 

Sam still looked worried but agreed to the plan and they turned the impala towards town.

 

[Shamaël]

6 hours ago, AngelEyes said:

Hi. I’m Dr Harkness and this is Dr Jones.

... ... ... Processing... ... ... Mwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!! 

I enjoyed this second part even more than the first one. I can't wait to see where you want to lead us! (And, anecdotically, i'm so glad your victim is Dean...)

[doggo]

Quote

With mouth still full he mumbled, “Thish ish fantashtic!”

sheesh

You write SPN so well! Really looking forward to see where this goes!

[jensdw]

Sneezy Dean at the hospital?  Can’t wait.

This is sooo good!!!

[castiel_angel]

I’m absolutely in love with this!😍 AND YOU HAVE DENIAL?!! This is just too good🥰💗✨

[onepageatatime]

This is a fantastic fic! Love that it has a plot line along with the yummy Dean sneezing 😍 can't wait to see where it goes from here!

[AngelEyes]

On 1/4/2019 at 7:16 AM, Aliena H. said:

... ... ... Processing... ... ... Mwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!! 

Yay!!! I'm so glad you caught it! I couldn't resist!

@doggo, @jensdw, @onepageatatime Thank you so much!

On 1/6/2019 at 11:06 PM, castiel_angel said:

AND YOU HAVE DENIAL?!!

I wasn't even thinking when I put that in, so I'm glad you liked it!

So, tough news guys. Sorry the update is taking so long. I was in the middle of moving, and then yesterday I face planted off my horse and have 2 broken wrists and an orbital fracture of my left eye socket. So looking at the screen is tiring and it's really hard to type! I see the ortho dr tomorrow to see what the plan is for my wrists, but I'm hoping to get back at it soon! Thanks for your patience!

[Seeker]

On 1/13/2019 at 8:55 PM, AngelEyes said:

Yay!!! I'm so glad you caught it! I couldn't resist!

@doggo, @jensdw, @onepageatatime Thank you so much!

I wasn't even thinking when I put that in, so I'm glad you liked it!

So, tough news guys. Sorry the update is taking so long. I was in the middle of moving, and then yesterday I face planted off my horse and have 2 broken wrists and an orbital fracture of my left eye socket. So looking at the screen is tiring and it's really hard to type! I see the ortho dr tomorrow to see what the plan is for my wrists, but I'm hoping to get back at it soon! Thanks for your patience!

Oh my gosh! I hope you feel better soon!

[Shamaël]

Oh I'm so sorry for you and I hope you're okay!

(And yeah, I really liked the "Dr Harkness"... )

[jensdw]

I’m so sorry to hear you got hurt! I hope you feel better!!

[Wolfwings22]

I hope you feel better! Injuries are no fun and I hope you’re not in too much pain!

[castiel_angel]

I’m so sorry!! That seriously sounds like the absolute worst!! Hope you feel better💗