Chapter Text
Dean slowly walks into the bedroom where a young girl's body is tucked peacefully into bed. "I brushed her hair after I brought her back. I wanted her to look perfect. She looks like an angel while she sleeps. Taking her was a mistake and I’m sorry." Dean whispers as he carefully watches over to the vanity to pick up the pastel pink hair brush.
"What does that have to do with-" Paige asks in a low voice, but she's hushed by Daniel Bryan and the other FBI agents nearby.
"This is how he works." Daniel says softly, scratching at his beard . "He gets into their heads... After the fact. It's crazy, but it works. Shane wouldn't trust him otherwise."
Dean's fingers carefully pull the sheets and comforter back to expose the constellation of puncture wounds on the girl’s abdomen. He climbs carefully climbing up on the bed and straddles the girl. Slowly he flexes his fingers in front of himself and then violently shoves his fingers in the holes. The dead girl’s eyes open wide and she gasps one last breath.
Slowly she turns her head to look at Dean directly. She doesn't say anything but Dean is overwhelmed by the wave of caring and adoration that he has for this girl. But she doesn't fulfill him. She isn't right. She doesn't scratch his itch like she should. He shouldn't have chosen her.
"There's something wrong with her. I wouldn't have picked her if I had known she was sick." Dean says simply as he opens his eyes to see that the brunette girl is still tucked into bed, peacefully waiting for the forensic team to take her away.
"So he wants them healthy?" Shane asks hesitantly, not sure Dean is done. "What does he want from her then?"
"Well he stabbed her with deer antlers." Paige puts in, making Dean jump and back away. "There’s down from the antlers on the wounds. Right shape too."
"What do you mean sick?" Daniel asks. "Parents said she was fine. Perfect health, doing well in school."
"Deer velvet is associated with healing. It was his way of trying to fix what he had done." Dean offers, ignoring Shane’s comment. He may not know exactly what is wrong with this girl, but the killer had.
"What do you mean, fix what he had done?" Shane asks, confused but intrigued by the idea. "Are you saying that the killer is remorseful? He's never returned any of the other girls."
Dean shakes his head. "No, he isn't sorry he kills. He's sorry that he took her life when he couldn't honor her. He couldn't show her proper love."
Shane frowns, looking at the blood stains seeping subtly through the covers. "What was different about her?" He says thoughtfully.
"Doesn't help much to heal her when he'd already stabbed her." Paige says snidely. "Weird fucker. So aren't you supposed to tell us how to catch him?" She says with a pointed glare at Dean.
When Dean's head snaps up unnaturally fast, Shane grabs his arm and hauls him out of the dead girl’s room to let the rest of his team work. "Stay with me Dean, I can't let you go down that rabbit hole right now. I need you here and working on this. What did you learn?"
Dean shrinks back at the anger in Shane's voice, "She isn't special or different. She's a stand in for his... his golden ticket. For the one he actually loves."
"He doesn't ‘love’ these girls. We didn't find any semen Dean!" Shane retorts, "There was no sign of sexual assault."
Dean shakes his head, frustrated at not being able to explain the threads of this killer's motivation that seem to be slipping through his fingers. "No, no no. He would never defile them like that. He would never dishonor them."
Shane frowns and leans back against the floral wallpaper of the dimly-lit hallway, glad that the parents took the night to go stay at a hotel away from the crime scene. "What kind of a psychopath does that?"
"I don't know! I don't know why he brought her back. I don't know why we have never found any of the other girls." Dean declares, throwing his hands up in the air in exhaustion. It feels like there's something crawling under his skin. Something dark and dangerous. He hates it. He hates that he doesn't have words to describe why he knows this wasn't motivated by sex. "He's doing whatever he does with her because he has to. But he couldn't do that with her. Something is different about her. Once you figure that out we will know what kind of psychopath he is."
"Ok. Ok, fine. Go home Dean." Shane says, disappointed. "Sleep this off. We'll take her in and find out what makes her special."