ONE BY ONE

assie sits at the desk in the lounge. There is a knock at the door. "Dean!" She yells.

"Hey." Dean says.

"Hey. Come on in." Cassie says and moves out the way.

Dean steps into the doorframe. "So...you busy, or..." He drones.

"The paper's doing a tribute to Jimmy. I was just going through his stuff...his awards. Trying to find the words." Cassie says.

"That's gotta be tough." Dean says.

Cassie looks extremely sad. "For years this family owned the paper. The Dorians? They had a whites only policy. After they sold it Jimmy became the first black reporter. He didn't stop til he became editor. He taught me everything..." She drifts off. "Where's your brother? And that one girl."

"Elena. And they're not here." Dean says.

"All right. So, uh, what brings you here?" Cassie asks.

"Trying to find the connection between the three victims. By the way, did you talk to your mum about, what Todd said about not being a racist? Dean asks.

Cassie nods. "I did. She didn't want to talk about it." She says.

"Right."

There's a long pause. "So just then, why did you ask where my brother was? And what's the deal with you and Elena?" Dean asks.

"Nothing. It wasn't important." She averts.

"Could it be because, without Sam here it's just you and me? Not you, me and Elena which would be easier?"

"It's not easier...Look, are you and Elena together...I..."

Dean turns away. "No. Forget it. It's fine. We'll keep it strictly business." He says.

Cassie stares after Dean. "I forgot you do that." She says.

"Do what?" He asks.

"Oh. Whenever we get, what's the word...close? Anywhere in the neighbourhood of emotional vulnerability, you back off. Or make some joke. Or find any way to shut the door on me." She says.

Dean gets offended and barks out a laugh. "Oh that's hilarious." He begins walking back to stand in front of her. "See, I'm not the one who took that big final door and slammed it behind me."

"Ok wait a minute..." Cassie starts, but gets interrupted by Dean.

"And I'm not the one who took the key and buried it." He accuses.

"We done with this metaphor?"

Dean looks utterly pissed. "Alls I'm saying is I was totally up front with you back then, and you nailed me for it." He says.

"The guy I'm with, the guy I'm hoping might be in my future, tell's me he professionally pops ghosts." Cassie says.

"That's not the words I used!" Dean yells.

"And that he has to leave, to go work with his father." She continues.

Dean had gotten red. "I did!" He yells again.

"All I could think was, If you want out fine, but don't tell me this insane story." She says.

Dean raises his voice and gets in her face. "It was the truth Cassie, and I notice it didn't sound insane the minute you thought I could help you."

"Well back then I thought you just wanted to dump me." Cassie says.

"Whoa! Now let's not forget who dumped who ok?" Dean says.

"I thought it was what you wanted." Cassie said.

Dean got serious. "Well it wasn't." He says.

"I didn't mean to hurt you." She says.

"Well you did."

"I'm sorry!" Cassie yells.

Dean looks at her. "Yeah me too." He says. They stare at each other, then start making out furiously. Switch to them falling into bed, making love.

Meanwhile, the Mayor stands looking at plans. He folds them up and makes his way back to his car. Before he can get in the black truck pulls up behind him, reving it's engine. The Mayor starts to run down the road. The truck hits him, he falls down an embankment and rolls to a stop, obviously dead.

am and Elena are sitting in a cafe. Elena wondered where Dean was, but Sam already knew. Sam comes back from the counter and brings back a greasy white bag. "What the hell is a cronumuffin?" He asks and sits down.

"It's obvious, Sam." Elena says. "It's a croissant, donut and muffin."

"Sounds like a disease." Sam says and Elena couldn't help but laugh.

Elena leans back in her chair and smiled. "You know, it is sort of peaceful when Dean isn't here." She says.

"Can't argue with that. It also feels great to hang out with someone else besides my egotistical brother."

Elena gives him a look. "I've been hanging out with you too." She says.

"But not like this." He chuckles. "This is very...relaxing."

"Well, call me your Yoda." Elena says and Sam laughs.

Before they could take a bite out their delicious pastries, Cop Cars pass by hurriedly. "What the..?" Sam says.

Elena and Sam look at each other. "Well I guess this getaway just took a wrong turn." She says and they both get up out of their chairs and out the door.

"I'm calling Dean." Sam says.

Dean lays on his back, his arm around Cassie tucked against his side. "We should fight more often." She says.

Dean stares at the roof, absentmindedly running his fingers up and down her arm. "Absolutely." He agrees.

"Actually we were always pretty good at fighting." Cassie indicates their position. "This we were good at. It's all the other stuff...not so much."

"Hey I tried. I told you who I really was. That was a big first for me." Dean says.

Cassie looks up from his chest. "Why'd you tell me?" She asks.

"I don't know. I guess I couldn't lie to you." Dean says.

"Dean. You told me that story...it scared the hell outta me. I thought you were nuts. Dangerous even. Actually, maybe I was looking for a reason to walk away." Cassie says.

Dean clears his throat. "In my work...uh...I see some horrible things. Things that can't be explained. I deal with them. But working things out with you?"

"I'm a scary one all right...well, usually things get worked out. When you really want them to." Cassie says.

Dean hesitates. "You know, I'm still really involved. With my dad's work." He says.

Cassie leans up on one elbow to look down at Dean. "No more excuses ok? From you or me." She says.

"Ok." They start kissing. Dean's phone rings and he reaches for it. "Yeah." Dean listens. Looks startled. "You're kidding!"

ean approaches Sam and Elena, who are talking to a cop. "He's with us." Sam says. The cop leaves. Sam turns to Dean with a half smile.

"Where were you last night? You didn't make it back to the hotel." Elena asks.

"Well..."

Sam continues to smile. "I'm guessing you guys worked things out?" He asks.

"We'll be working things out when we're ninety. So what happened?" Dean asks.

"Every bone crushed." Elena sighs.

"Internal organ's turned to pudding. The cops are all stumped, it's like something ran him over." Sam says.

Dean looks confused. "Something like a truck?" He asks.

"Yep." Elena says.

"Tracks?" Dean asks.

Sam shakes his head. "Nope."

"What was the Mayor doing here anyway?" Dean asks.

Elena puts her hands in her leather jacket. "He owned the property. Bought it a few weeks ago." She says.

"But he's white, he doesn't fit the pattern." Dean points out.

"Killings didn't happen up on the road. That doesn't fit either." Dean says.

assie makes two mugs of tea and takes them over to where Dean sits at a computer. "Here." She says.

"Thanks. So I'm trying to find some link between those killings back in the '60s and what's going on now. There wasn't a lot about it in the paper." Dean says.

Cassie looks. "Not surprising. Probably minimal policework too. Back then equal justice under the law wasn't too literal around here." She says.

Dean's phone rings. "Yeah." He says.

"Ok, the courthouse records show that Mr and Mrs Mayor bought an abandoned property. The previous owner was the Dorian family for, like, 150 years." Sam says on the phone.

"Dorian?"

Elena leans in to the phone. "Yeah." She says a little too loud in the speaker.

"Geez." Dean pulls the phone away from his ear and turns to Cassie. "Didn't you say the Dorian family used to own this paper?" He asks.

Cassie nods. "Along with everything else around here. Real pillars of the town."

"Right, right." Dean clicks a few links on the computer. "That's interesting."

"What?" Sam asks.

"This Cyrus Dorian. He vanished in April of '63.The case was investigated but never solved." Sam says.

Elena continues. "It was right around the time the string of murders was going on back then." She finishes.

"Well I pulled a bunch of papers up on the Dorian place, it musta been in bad shape when the Mayor bought." Sam says.

"Why's that?" Dean asks.

"The first thing he did was bulldoze the place." Elena says.

Dean turns to Cassie. "Mayor Todd knocked down the Dorian place?" He asked her.

"It was a big deal. One of the oldest houses left. He made the front page." Cassie says.

Dean focuses his attention in Sam and Elena. "You got a date?" He asks.

"Ahhh. The 3rd of last month." Sam checks.

Dean clicks on something, then reading from computer screen. "Mayor Todd bulldozed the Dorian family home on the 3rd. The first killing was the very next day."

After Dean leaves, Cassie wanders around with a glass of something. As she puts it down on the desk the lights flicker and she hears a reving engine outside. Headlights shine through the slats of the blinds and she hurriedly closes them.

The truck starts making passes at the house and Cassie. terrified, runs from room to room closing the blinds. She races for her phone and dials a number. "Dean. Dean!" She yells.

ater that night at her house, Sam hands Cassie a cup of tea. Dean sits beside her protectively. Hands shaking, Cassie rattles the cup. "Maybe you could throw a couple of shots in that." She says.

"You didn't see who was driving the truck." Sam says.

"It seemed to be no one. Everything was moving so fast. And then it was just gone. Why didn't it kill us?" Cassie asked.

"Whoever was controlling the truck wants you afraid first."

"Mrs Robinson, Cassie said that your husband saw the truck before he died." Elena says.

Mrs Robinson is shaking. "Mom?" Cassie asks.

"Oh. Martin was under a lot of stress. You can't be sure about what he was seeing." Cassie's Mom says.

Dean sits up. "Well after tonight I think we can be reasonably sure he was seeing a truck. What happened tonight, you and Cassie are marked. Ok? Your daughter could die. So if you know something now would be a really good time to tell us about it."

"Dean..." Cassie says softly.

Mrs Robinson thought for a second. "Yes. Yes, he said he saw a truck." She said.

"Did he know who it belonged to?" Sam asks.

"He thought he did."

"Who was that?" Elena asks.

Mrs Robinson gets up. "Cyrus. A man named Cyrus."

Sam and Dean look at each other, Dean reaches for his bag and shows Mrs Robinson the newspaper article about Dorian's death. "Is this Cyrus?" Dean asks.

"Cyrus Dorian died more than 40 years ago." She said sadly.

Dean speaks softly. "How do you know he died, Mrs Robinson? The paper's said he went missing. How do you know he died?" He asks.

"We were all very young. I dated Cyrus a while, I was also seeing Martin...in secret of course. Inter-racial couples didn't go over too well back then. When I broke it off with Cyrus and when he found out about Martin, I don't know, he, changed. His hatred. His hatred was frightening." Mrs. Robinson says.

Elena looks at Sam. "The murders.

"There were rumours. People of colour disappearing into some kind of a truck. Nothing was ever done. Martin and a... Martin and I, we were gunna be, uh, married in that little church near here, but last minute we decided to elope as we didn't want the attention." Cassie's Mom says softly.

"And Cyrus?" Dean asks.

Mrs Robinson breaks down. "The day we set for the wedding, was the day someone set fire to the church. There was a children's choir practising in there. They all died." She confessed.

"Did the attacks stop after that?" Sam asked softly.

Mrs Robinson begins sobbing. "No! There was one more. One night that truck came for Martin. Cyrus beat him something terrible. But Martin, you see, Martin got loose. And he started hitting Cyrus and he just kept hitting him and hitting him."

"Why didn't you call the cops?" Elena asks.

"This was forty years ago. He called on his friends, Clayton Soames and Jimmy Anderson, and they put Cyrus' body into the truck and they rolled it into the swamp at the end of his land and all three of them kept that secret all of these years." Mrs Robinson says.

"And now all three are gone."

"And so is Mayor Todd. Now he said that you of all people would know he is not a racist. Why would he say that?" Dean asks.

"He was a good man. He was a young Deputy back then investigating Cyrus' disappearence. Once he figured out what Martin and the others had done he...he did nothing, because he also knew what Cyrus had done." Cassie's mom says.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Cassie exclaimed.

Mrs. Robinson continues crying. "I thought I was protecting them. And now there's no one left to protect."

"Yes there is." Dean looks at Cassie. So does Mrs Robinson looking shaken.