- Text Size +
Damien sat in a chair, paging through a magazine.

“Mr. Winningham, hello” a woman said coming into the room.

“Dr. Benson good to see you again” Damien said standing up greet her “what can I do for you?”

“Well, Mr. Winningham, I came to talk to you about your father…as you know he’s been in a persistent vegetative state for a long time now” she said.

“Yes I know…sad isn’t it?” he asked.

“Mr. Winningham…what I’m trying to say is we need to talk about withdrawing life support” she said.

“Well, thank you for the offer but as it turns out I have no interest in pulling the plug just yet” Damien said smiling.

“Mr. Winningham, I know this is hard but there is no chance of him ever regaining consciousness, I’m sorry” she said.

“Dr. Benson, I understand what you’re saying but once again I’m not interested in withdrawing life support, but I’ll consider the thought” he said.

“Mr. Winningham, I’m afraid the request isn’t coming from me” she said.

“I see and who exactly made this ridiculous request?” he asked.

“I did” Darren said entering the room.

Damien looked at him angrily “Thank you doctor, we’ll discuss it and get back to you” Damien said to her.

“Yes, sir” she said leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Damien asked.

“It has to be done, you have no legal right” Darren said “Now that mom’s gone, I am obligated to follow the terms of dad’s will and in no uncertain terms did he want to be kept alive and you know it” Darren said.

“Not if I have anything to say about it” Damien said to him.

“You don’t exist anymore!” Darren said “Damien Winchester is dead, remember?” he asked "There’s no point in keeping him alive anymore, look at him!” Darren said “He’s a shell of his former self, the machines are living for him, there is no brain function!” Darren said.

“Will you keep your voice down?!” Damien said angrily.

Oh…I know why you’re keeping him like this…revenge” Darren said, Damien scoffed “You’re getting a sick thrill at watching him helpless like this, keeping him trapped in his own body, what is it some sort of payback?” Darren asked.

“You’re damn right it is” Damien said darkly “We didn’t have the same father Darren and you know it, your father was attentive, caring, doted on you non-stop but me? Mine was cold, callous, distant, critical, do you know what that does to a person? Our mother…the one parent who ever cared about me or loved me is gone and I couldn’t even say goodbye to her” Damien said.

“I’m sorry Damien, I really am, I’m sorry about your whole life, but you know this isn’t right, keeping him like this…he may have been a miserable, awful human being but even he deserves peace” Darren said.

Damien chuckled “Do you really believe that there’s some sort of happy afterlife waiting for him? Please, we both know where he’s headed” Damien said. “I have to go” Damien said “do me a favor…don’t unplug him just yet” Damien said as he left.

“Damien!” Darren called out after him.

~*~


Sydney reached across the kitchen table and turned off the tape recorder “Well?” she asked.

“I had no idea” Barry said “After all this time, you didn’t know about this?” he asked.

“I was given a general idea but…not the full story…until now.”

“This is unbelievable…to go through all that, at such a young age…it’s horrible” Barry said in disbelief.

“I know” Sydney said “Now do you see why we can’t use this idea?” she asked.

“What are you talking about? Sydney, this is the best idea ever! The sons of a famous pop band caught up in a deadly rivalry with a powerful corporate raider and his son” Barry said.

“Wait, what?” Sydney asked “Barry did you not listen to this story? Do you not understand the magnitude of what this experience has done to my husband? The trauma he carries around with him, he has scars on his body, wounds that will never heal, he lives with it every day in his mind, can you understand that?” she asked.

“Can you at least try to convince him to talk to us about it?” Barry asked.

Sydney looked at him dumbfounded “Get out” she said.

“What?” Barry asked confused.

“Out! Now! I am not about to make Bradley relive the single most horrible experience of his whole existence just to make money” Sydney said to her.

“but Sydney I…” Barry pleaded.

“Leave!” she said “Oh and by the way? You’re fired” she said slamming the door in his face.

~*~


“How many of these are there exactly?” Bradley asked Neilson.

“Depends, which incident are you looking for?" Neilson asked him.

“That many huh?” Bradley asked.

“You sound like you’re surprised” Neilson said.

Bradley looked inside a box and pulled out a plastic bag containing the remnants of an old blood tattered shirt.

Neilson carefully pulled Bradley's shirt from him.

"What are you doing?" Bradley asked him.

"I got to keep pressure on it" Neilson said.

"Oh come on this is my favorite shirt!" Bradley said to him.

"You were shot, don't worry about your shirt" Neilson said to him.


Bradley groaned and began to massage his arm.

“You alright?” Neilson asked.

“Yeah, just the old gunshot wound acting up again” Bradley said “I swear, the older I get the more it hurts, makes no sense” he said.

“It’s weird, sitting here reading through all this when we lived it” Neilson said.

“Yeah I know…I was hoping that as we got older, everything that happened, we’d forget some of it” Bradley said.

“Yeah me too…but nope, it’s always there, the pain, the terror, the fear” Neilson said.

“Truth be told I don’t even want to go to this reunion” Bradley said.

“Yeah me either” Neilson said laughing “Nat’s making me” he said.

“Yeah Syd wants to go too, not really sure why, not like she knew me in high school” Bradley said.

“Lucky her” Neilson said smirking.

Bradley smacked him with a folder file “I wasn’t that bad” Bradley said “was I?” he asked.

“We were both pretty bad” Neilson said.

“We were probably still better than Adam” Bradley said.

“Pfft…” Neilson said sputtering.

Bradley opened another folder to find a list of evidence involved in the case “Neilson” Bradley said.

“Yeah?” Neilson asked.

“Check this out” he said handing it to Neilson.

“Evidence list” he said.

“See anything interesting there?” Bradley asked as Neilson looked over the list.

“…The ice pick” Neilson said “It’s not in any one of these boxes” he said.

“Uh huh…and we know why” Bradley said.

~*~


“Captain, thanks for coming” Bradley said opening the door for Dean.

”Bradley” Dean said entering the house.

“Drink?” Bradley asked opening the refrigerator.

“Depends is this official police business or just a friendly chat?” Dean asked.

“Little bit of both” Bradley said taking a drink from a bottle.

“Either way I’ll pass, what’d you want to talk about?” Dean asked, Bradley handed over a file folder “The Winchester case” he said “What are you doing with this?” he asked.

“Going down memory lane” Bradley said.

“Bradley…what is this about?” Dean asked.

“It’s the evidence list” Bradley said.

“So I see…why do you have it?” Dean asked.

“Notice something missing?” Bradley asked taking another swig from his bottle.

“No…everything seems to be in order” Dean said.

“Really? Why don’t you take another look” Bradley said pointing to the list.

“Alright Bradley what is this about?” Dean asked irritated.

“I checked all the case files…the ice pick that I used to…” Bradley said.

“Stab Derek Winchester?” Dean said.

“Yeah…it’s missing” Bradley said.

“I know” Dean sighed.

“You do?” Bradley asked.

“A few months after the prom the ice pick went missing…I just assumed it was disposed of but it wasn’t checked out of evidence and there was no record of it ever being destroyed…we checked video footage and someone had broken into the evidence locker and taken it but we’re not sure who” Dean said to him.

Bradley nodded “Follow me” he said leading him out to the garage. “My freshman year of college…Neilson and I were sharing an apartment on campus” he said rummaging through some old boxes. He pulled out an old trunk from a bottom shelf “One afternoon when I was coming back from class, I found this” he said reaching into a crawl space and pulling out an old box “It was just sitting there on our doorstep” he said handing it to Dean “Go ahead, open it” he said.

Dean opened the box and reached in to find the missing ice pick, still in the police evidence bag and still bloody “Oh my god” he said.

“A few days after that came in the mail…I thought I saw Damien at a pub on campus…I ran outside to see if it was really him but he was gone” Bradley said.

“No forwarding or return address” Dean said looking at the box “like someone just…”

“Dropped it on our doorstep I know” Bradley said.

“When did you say this was?” Dean asked.

“October 2010” Bradley said “Right before Halloween” Bradley said.

“You’ve had this all these years and you never said anything?” Dean asked.

“I completely forgot about it until I was reading that evidence list…captain, we need to start considering the fact that Damien or his father or both of them are still alive” Bradley said.

“Impossible” Dean said.

“Captain, in theory it all makes sense I mean come on, the timing, the people this guy has targeted…who else could it be but him?” Bradley asked.

“Damien fell from a hotel balcony and…well you know what happened to his father” Dean said to him.

“They’ve faked their deaths before haven’t they?” Bradley asked “Just let Neilson and I work on this and if nothing pans out we’ll drop it” Bradley said, Dean looked at him.

“What do you need?” Dean asked.

“Just proof that Damien and his father are in fact dead uh…a death certificate, an autopsy report, a body…”

“Bradley you need a warrant for those things and without probable cause you won’t get it and your hunch isn’t good enough to obtain one” Dean said.

“Right but I would hope you being married to the DA would help…not to mention she has first hand knowledge of this case and what damage it did to everyone” Bradley said.

“Fine…I will attempt to get Kellie to talk to a judge but I’m telling you now…if nothing new turns up, you drop it and move on” Dean said.

“Yes sir” Bradley said to him.

~*~


Bradley, Neilson, and Dean nervously hovered outside the judge’s office, the door opened and Kellie stepped out.

“Well?” Dean asked, she held the warrant up.

“Thank you so much” Bradley said sighing in relief.

“You’re welcome…however, there are some conditions she said. “This warrant only allows you access to medical records, autopsy reports and death certificates, you are not to disturb their final resting place, understood?”

“Fine” Bradley said.

“And…” she said holding the warrant away from him “You let me know about anything you find” she said.

“Got it” he said as she finally handed him the warrant.

~*~


A knock came upon the door to Vicki’s office “Come in” she said looking at the papers on her desk.

“Hey mom” Bradley said entering.

“Oh hi” she said greeting him "This is a nice surprise” she said.

“Yeah well I’m not here on a social call” Bradley said to her.

“We have a warrant” Neilson said to her.

“Oh…for what?” Vicki asked as Neilson handed it to her.

“Medical records and everything and anything pertaining to…Damien and Derek Winchester” Bradley said to her.

“The Winchesters?” she asked “Is this about what happened with Barry the other night?”

“Kind of, yeah” Bradley said.

“Honey…” Vicki said to Bradley.

“Mom, this is an official police investigation” he said.

“Alright…I’ll page Harry, he can help you” she said to him.

~*~


“I can’t believe you guys are looking into this” Harry said as he tapped on computer keys “Or why you even want to” he said.

“Police business Harry” Bradley said to him.

“Yeah just hurry it up would you?” Neilson asked.

“Here it is” Harry said as a printer began to spew out pieces of paper.

“I don’t…I don’t understand any of this it’s just a bunch of medical jargon” Neilson said flipping through pages.

“This doesn’t prove anything, anyone can falsify medical records” Bradley said “We need a body, we need solid evidence, does it say who his body was released to?” Bradley asked.

“I think so” Harry said tapping on computer keys “His brother” Harry said.

“His brother?” Bradley asked.

“Yep, Darren Winchester, says right here” Harry said pointing to the screen “Here’s the part you’re not gonna like” Harry said “It says that Darren had both Damien and his father’s bodies sent to a crematorium” Harry said.

“Makes sense, his mom thought they had been killed in the explosion, guess he had to make it look like they did” Neilson said.

“And ashes are impossible to get DNA from” Bradley said.

“There you have it” Harry said.

“I guess so” Bradley said “Alright, thanks Harry” Bradley said as they left.

“No problem” Harry called after them.

~*~


Bradley paged through papers at his desk, Neilson passed by and sent a folder down in front of him before taking a seat at his own desk “What’s this?” Bradley asked.

“File on Darren Winchester” Neilson said to him “Seems like he served out his sentence for aiding and abetting, moved to Connecticut to help take care of his mom, he moved back last year after she died…to intern her in the family mausoleum” Neilson said.

“They have a mausoleum?” Bradley asked.

“Yep” Neilson said.

“Hmm…well…what do you say we pop by the cemetery for a little visit?” Bradley asked as they stood up from the desk.

“Good idea” Neilson said as they left the station.

~*~


They walked through the cemetery coming to a large vault.

“Winchester Family Crypt” Bradley said as they approached a gate.

“As if you could miss it” Neilson quipped as they stepped inside.

“Well well would look at this” Bradley said as they looked at the large plaques on the wall, he stared at Derek’s plaque. “I really hope you’re rotting in hell you twisted son of a bitch” Bradley said.

“Still doesn’t prove much huh? Just a plaque on a wall, not concrete evidence of a death” Neilson said.

“No…but we know who has some” Bradley said.