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They had been driving for a while with no thought on where to go. Their father still hadn't contacted them. So with nothing else to do or a new hunt to pursue, they decided to keep traveling east. On the fourth day, Dean was now looking for some hunting leads in a local newspaper as they stopped by a diner for something to eat.

"Whatcha doing?" Harriet asked as her older brother circled some articles in the newspaper with a red pen while Sam had left to go to the bathroom before she joked, "I didn't know you could read?"

"Shut up, Harry," Dean slaps her hard on the arm.

She gives her arm a brief rub, "Move it," she asserted moodily, "I gotta use the little girl's room," Dean moves out the way and goes to the bathroom in peace. Living with two brothers for weeks on end was annoying at times, but over the years, Harriet had gotten used to it while they were growing up.

"That's fun," Harriet sees her older brother pointing at some blonde waitress who now walks past hearing the cheeky tone in his voice and can't help but roll her eyes just like Sam had done now taking a seat beside him instead of Dean, who now pushed a newspaper across from the obituaries he'd been circling earlier yet one had more rings around it than the others, "Here, take a look at this, I think I got one. Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin. Last week Sophie Carlton, eighteen, walks into the lake, doesn't walk out. Authorities dragged the water; nothing. Sophie Carlton is the third Lake Manitoc drowning this year. None of the other bodies were found either. They had a funeral two days ago."

"A funeral?" Sam asked with a frown.

"Yeah, it's weird. They buried an empty coffin. For, uh, closure or whatever."

"Closure? What closure?" Harriet scoffed, looking equally as baffled as her twin, "People don't just disappear, Dean. Other people just stop looking for them," she ends the last part with some extra emphasis, her and Sam now staring at their older brother with stony expressions.

"Is there something either of you wants to say to me?" Dean challenged, folding his arms.

"The trail for Dad. It's getting colder every day," Sam implied.

"Exactly. So what are we supposed to do?" Dean nodded with slight anger in his voice.

"I don't know. Something. Anything," Harriet voiced in frustration.

"You know what? I'm sick of this attitude," their brother now leaned forwards, "You don't think I wanna find Dad as much as you guys do?"

"Yeah, we know you do. It's just-"

"I'm the one that's been with him every single day for the past two years, while you've both been off to college going to pep rallies," Dean interjects, "We will find Dad, but until then, we're going to kill everything bad between here and there. Okay?"

Both the twins returned similar expressions of disappointment but remained silent, rolling their eyes in disbelief. Their older brother, too distracted from their conversation by the blonde waitress from earlier, offers him a smile as the female Winchester now cleared her throat loudly and spoke to get Dean's attention. Still, it didn't work as his eyes continued to ogle the waitress, "All right, Lake Manitoc," she lets out a sigh, "Hey!"

"Huh?" Dean returned his attention to his siblings, only for his sister to slap him hard on the arm.

"Would it kill you to keep it in your pants for a couple of minutes," Harriet stated with a glare.

"How far?" Sam shook his head before asking.

"Just a couple of hours maybe," he shrugged.

"Great so let's get going," Sam said, getting up his sister right behind him, thinking that Dean was just right behind her only to now turn around and see him flirting with the blonde waitress, "Dean..."

"You gotta be kidding me," Harriet scoffed and shook her head, putting her hand up before her twin could utter a word, "I'll handle this," turning around she went up to her older brother, yanking him by the arm as he let out a noise of surprise, "Come on Casanova we've got work to do."

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Harriet gazed out the backseat passenger window, her head lightly resting against the cool glass just as they passed a sign that read 'Welcome to Lake Manito, WI.' A couple of minutes later, the Impala pulls into park on a dirt road just outside the Carlton residence to have a word with the family about the recent loss of Sophie, the latest victim. Getting out of the car with Harriet standing between her brothers, Dean knocked on the front door.

When a young man not much younger than the twins answers the door as Dean guessed, "Will Carlton?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"I'm Agent Ford," Dean introduced, gesturing to his brother and sister, "This is Agent Hamill and Agent Fisher. We're with the US Wildlife Service," he now procured an ID from his jacket pocket and holds it up for a few seconds.

Will takes them around to the front of the house near the shore of the lake, and Harriet spots Sophie's father. Just sitting there on a bench on the dock, face and eyes void of emotion as he gazed out vacantly at the still water.

"She was about a hundred yards out," Will explained, pointing towards the lake, "That's where she got dragged down."

"And you're sure she didn't just drown?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," the young man scoffed, "She was a varsity swimmer. She practically grew up in that lake. She was as safe out there as in her bathtub."

"So no splashing? No signs of distress?" Sam asked with some slight disbelief. Even though they were acting and sounding somewhat professional with this investigation which was a tad ironic since neither of them has dressed the part of government agents, no matter what department it was, they had to impersonate.

"No, that's what I'm telling you," Will returned, a little frustrated.

"Did you see any shadows in the water?" Harriet proposed wanting to rule anything out that could have caused Sophie's mysterious death, "Maybe some dark shape breached the surface?"

"No. Again, she was really far out there."

You ever see any strange tracks by the shoreline?" Dean chimed in again.

"No, never. Why?" Will frowned for a moment before glancing over at the lake for a brief moment at his father, "Why, what do you think's out there?"

"We'll let you know as soon as we do," Dean replied with finality and turned back to head towards Baby. Thinking this part of the investigation was finally done and that everything would follow suit but the one thing Dean when he instantly came to a halt when his siblings hadn't followed and were both staring out at Bill Carlton still sitting on the dock.

Harriet and Sam both knew how Will was feeling. The telling dark circles under his eyes from many sleepless nights and not wanting to eat much food, especially when grieving. 

"What about your father? Can we talk to him?"

Will turned back to look at his father, who still hadn't moved from his spot during their conversation, before implying sympathetically, "Look, if you don't mind, I mean...he didn't see anything, and he's kind of been through a lot."

Harriet nodded and replied, "We understand," resting a counseling hand on her twin's arm to indicate that for the time being, they needed to let it go, and both headed back towards the Impala. Getting back into the car, Harriet pondered aloud, "Do you think we should try the Police Station next?"

"Yeah, suppose we should," Dean nodded in agreement to his sister's notion before starting Baby's engine.

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When arriving at the police station, they're greeted by the sheriff, who after heard them introducing themselves as he now inquired with a questionable frown, "Now, I'm sorry, but why does the Wildlife Service care about an accidental drowning?"

"You sure it's accidental? Will Carlton saw something grab his sister," Sam implied as they followed the Sheriff to his office that was at the back of the station.

"Like what?" the Sheriff asked incredulously, "Here, sit, please," opening his office door and gesturing for them to sit in the chairs the two chairs facing opposite his desk Dean waving for his younger siblings to take them choosing to remain standing behind them the man went on to voice in disbelief, "There are no indigenous carnivores in that lake. There's nothing even big enough to pull down a person unless it was the Loch Ness Monster."

"Yeah," Dean offered with a forceful laugh, "Right."

The twins glanced up at him, briefly returning their attention towards the Sheriff as he now sat at his desk telling them, "Will Carlton was traumatized, and sometimes the mind plays tricks. Still..." he paused for a moment before letting out a sigh, "We dragged that entire lake. We even ran a sonar sweep, to be sure, and there was nothing down there."

"That's weird, though. I mean..." Harriet retorted, leaning forward curiously, "That's the third missing body this year."

"I know," the Sheriff let out another sigh, "These are people from my town. These are people I care about."

"I know," Harriet sighed reassuringly as she could tell the officer was taking these deaths relatively hard.

"Anyway..." the sheriff leaned back in his chair and sighed tiredly, "All this...it won't be a problem much longer."

Dean cocked his head slightly to the side, now finding the story more interesting, "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, the dam, of course."

"Of course, the dam," Dean hastily tried covering up the slip up he made, and his siblings nodded along quickly as if to say 'of course.' He promptly guessed, "It's, uh, it sprung a leak."

"It's falling apart," the sheriff tells them, "And the feds won't give us the grant to repair it, so they've opened the spillway. In another six months, there won't be much of a lake. There won't be much of a town, either. But as Federal Wildlife, you already knew that."

"Exactly," Dean played along as if he'd known that already.

There's now a light tapping on the door behind them, and they all turn to face the young woman standing in the doorway as she steps inside. She had long dark brunette hair and a friendly-looking face, but there was a deep sadness within her brown eyes that Harriet and Sam could only see. Apparently, from what they could gather, this town was rather sad and depressing. The twins didn't need to look to know their older brother was smirking with glee.

"Sorry, am I interrupting?" the young woman asked shyly with a smile as Harriet and Sam now stood, "I can come back later."

"Gentlemen, and lady, this is my daughter."

Harriet knew that the woman was damn pretty; that's for sure heck she'd hit that in a second. She even had found the blonde back at the diner was attractive, but she never showed it or acted on it. Sam knew that his twin sister has always sometimes struggled with her bisexuality ever since she had confided in him about it when they were sixteen. And then Dean had found out about it they joked about it as siblings do, but he's supportive of her as a big brother should be, but he and Sam knew she just found it difficult to be herself ever since their father caught her kissing a girl a few years ago.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," naturally Dean went towards the pretty woman first with a plastered smile and held out his hand, "I'm Dean."

And Harriet couldn't but notice the silly grin still upon her older brother's face and rolled her eyes, now becoming more amused than annoyed at this point. Honestly, she always trusted her brother to flirt with a cute girl, which Harriet already that the woman was, no matter what town or place you'd find him flirting with the first girl he sees.

"Andrea Barr, " she accepted his hand and shook it, introducing herself with a grin, "Hi."

"Hi," Dean returned, still clearly infatuated, as Harry shared a look with Sam, both rolling their eyes.

"They're from the Wildlife Service. About the lake," Andrea's father explained to her.

The woman's expression dropped from her face at the news. It merely stated, "Oh," at that moment, a little boy around seven with almost long copper hair comes walking in to stand in front of Andrea without talking, and Harriet had to guess she must be the woman's son, she thought he was adorable.

"Oh, hey there. What's your name?" Dean asked, but the boy just glanced at the ground instead and walked away, not saying a word. Andrea following not far behind her son.

"His name is Lucas," the sheriff responded. Harriet glanced in her brother's direction and could see how troubled but concerned she was about Lucas's odd behavior that was equally mirrored in their faces.

Sam now turned back to inquire, "Is he okay?"

"My grandson's been through a lot. We all have," in doing so, the sheriff walks towards the office door and declares, "Well, if there's anything else I can do for you, please let me know."

The three siblings nodded in acknowledgment and vacated the office seeing Andrea passing her son a crayon pack just as they were about to walk outside.

By this point, Dean spoke up, "Thanks. You know, now that you mentioned it, could you point us in the direction of a reasonably priced motel?"

He gazed at Andrea as she now looked up and replied sweetly, "Lakefront Motel. Go around the corner. It's about two blocks south."

"Two..." Dean adopted a thoughtful look on his features to add then, "would you mind showing us?" that's when Harriet and Sam figure out what he's doing, and both shook their heads with a slight smile forming on their lips.

Yet the female Winchester started to laugh by quickly covering it up by coughing about her brother's shameless flirting. If he was trying to be subtle about it, then he's failed miserably. By the laugh Andrea let out, she saw right through his words.

"You want me to walk you two blocks?"

"Not if it's any trouble," Dean smiles sheepishly but manages to make himself look more arrogant relatively.

"I'm headed that way anyway," Andrea states with an amused grin in Dean's direction, and Harriet couldn't believe her older brother's flirting worked.

Andrea now turned to her father to announce, "I'll be back to pick up Lucas at three," she now turned to her little boy and uttered softly, "We'll go to the park, okay, sweetie?" she kissed Lucas tenderly on his head who remained silent before leading the way out of the police station.

Harriet offers the sheriff a small wave as they leave and Sam a small but quick thank you as they head outside.

The siblings began walking to the motel along with Andrea. Sam and Harriet kept back a little bit to let their older brother walk with the other woman so they could overhear and watch.

"So, cute kid," the eldest Winchester now spoke up as Harry nudged her twin, both silently snickering as they knew well enough Dean sometimes didn't like kids.

"Thanks," the woman returned with a simple smile as they now crossed the street.

"Kids are the best, huh?" the twins snorted at Dean's attempt to flirt with Andrea once again, who was now glancing in his direction completely before ignoring him.

Andrea brushes the comment off, and the four of them continue to walk a little more until they suddenly come to a stop, "There it is. Like I said, two blocks," The building had a large sign that read 'Lakefront Motel.'

"Thanks," Sam offered with a grateful smile.

Andrea now turned to address Dean, "Must be hard, with your sense of direction, never being able to find your way to a decent pickup line," she turned to walk away with an evil smirk upon her lips to only then call over her shoulder, "Enjoy your stay!"

Once the woman was much further down the street, Harriet couldn't contain herself much longer and bursts out laughing, "Oh my God! She just completely blew you off!" As she laughed, Sam snickers from beside her because they were both finding their older brother's expression priceless.

"'Kids are the best'? You don't even like kids," Sam mocked, still grinning with amusement.

"I love kids," Dean protests.

"Uh-huh, sure you do," his sister challenges him with her arms crossed and a raised eyebrow, "Name three children that you even know right now, I dare you."

She knew that Dean would lose, but he took his time actually to think of a name, yet all Harry could do was shake her head and laugh before following after her twin, who had since entered the motel to inquire about a room.

The young brunette grinned from ear to ear as she heard her older brother call out from behind her, "I'm thinking!"

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Now having gotten a room, Harriet was spread out on one of the beds while Sam was sat down at the table with the laptop to do some research on their case. Dean strolls past his little sister and chuckles something under his breath at the current sight of her spread out on the bed, and sets his bag on the other to start going through his things. She glanced in his direction for a moment in amusement to find him sniffing at his clothes to check if they were still clean. 

A couple of minutes passed by, and Harriet contemplated whether or not she should take a short nap before they would have to up and leave again.

She closes her eyes for a short moment and just beings to nod off when she hears Sam's voice with a sigh, "So there are the three drowning victims this year."

"Any before that?" Dean inquiries as he continues unpacking.

"Uh, yeah..." Sam paused for a moment as he clicked on another link for the town's online newspaper and opened up another window, "Six more spread out over the past thirty-five years. Those bodies were never recovered either. If there is something out there, it's picking up its pace."

"So, what, we got a lake monster on a binge?"

"This whole lake monster theory, it, it just bugs me."

"Why?" Harriet spoke up questioningly from where she was laid out on the bed. As she heard her older brother go to stand behind Sam and at whatever he had upon the laptop screen.

"Loch Ness, uh, Lake Champlain, there are literally hundreds of eyewitness accounts, but here, almost nothing," Sam sighed before continuing, "Whatever it is out there, no one's living to talk about it."

"Wait, Barr, Christopher Barr," Dean blurted out, "Where have I heard that name before?"

"Christopher Barr, the victim in May."

Harriet instantly sat up soon as she spoke and mused out loud in thought, "Hang on a second, the Sheriff's daughter Andrea, wasn't her last name also Barr?"

"Yeah, it says here Christopher Barr was Andrea's husband, Lucas's father," Sam confirmed this for his sister as she now got up and came to stand the other side of him as continued to search through the newspaper articles on the laptop, "Apparently he took Lucas out swimming. Lucas was on a floating wooden platform when Chris drowned. Two hours before the kid got rescued."

"Oh my God! So that poor kid just watched his dad die and got left stranded out on that lake for two whole hours!?" Harry cried in horror. 

"Yeah, so maybe we have an eyewitness after all."

"No wonder that kid was so freaked out. Watching one of your parents die isn't something you get over," Dean mentioned.

"Yeah," Harriet offered grimly and couldn't help but look at her older brother to now be reminded of the fact that he was old enough to remember their mother dying. Looking down at her own hands as a long deathly silence came over the room. All of them are probably thinking it.

The young Winchester stopped her thoughts about her mother's death and started to drift back towards Lucas. Knowing that he saw what happened, they needed to understand what happened. But the tricky thing was how were they going to make Lucas talk? When the boy hardly spoke even a word.

Graphic by Winter326