John woke to the sound of a phone ringing. It was an unfortunately common wake up call in his line of work.

Usually, it came during a hunt: there was a new development in the case, or someone was in danger and in need of rescue. But he and Dean were between hunts now. They had just closed the coffin—literally—on a werewolf case in Oregon, and there were only a few loose ends to be wrapped up. In a couple of days, they would scour the news, mostly on the Internet these days, for anything that went bump in the night. For tonight, John was letting Dean sleep. God knew he needed it. Not that John ever said as much to him. He needed to keep the kid strong, a soldier. The cold approach might have been what drove Sam away, but it kept both of his boys alive.

Jon slipped into the next room to pick up the phone. "This is John Winchester."

"John Winchester," the voice on the other end said. The voice sounded frightened, hesitant, but also trepidatious in a different way. The man sounded as though he wasn't used to trembling in fear. "I'll cut right to the chase. The stories about you, are they true?"

It was a vague introduction, and yet… "Every last one."

"If it's true what they say about you...I need your help." He pronounced the words almost awkwardly, like he didn't say them often.

"Talk to me."

"What I'm about to tell you… I couldn't go to the police, you understand."

"You can assume I'm a little more open minded then the police."

"I know a little of the supernatural, but I never believed I could fall prey to a haunting myself."

"That's how it usually goes. Start from the beginning."

"It began with flickering lights. I called up my electrician, of course, but he couldn't find anything amiss in the wiring. Then there were voices at night. I began to worry my mind might be going, the pressures of my line of work, you understand."

"Is anyone hurt?"

"No. At least, not yet. I've managed to hold her off so far. But she's coming for me."

"Who?"

Short silence, then the man said, "My wife."

John groaned inwardly. Angry wives made the worst ghosts. "I'll be there as soon as I can. You said you knew a little about the supernatural. What have you done so far?"

"Salted the windows and door frames."

"You'll want to grab some iron, too. Fireplace tools are a good place to start."

"Will that kill her?"

"Unfortunately, no. But it'll slow her down." John grabbed a pencil and notepad from the table. "Where are you?"

"Smallville, Kansas. I can text you the address. It's a little cow town, blink and you'll miss it."

"Actually worked a case there, once. I'm up in Oregon, it'll be about a day for me to get to you. Give me a little time to pack, and I'll be on my way."

"I can't thank you enough, Mr. Winchester."

"Call me John. See you soon . . . uh, I didn't catch your name."

"It's Lionel Luthor."

John frowned. He'd heard the name in the news, wasn't a fan of the guy, but he wasn't going to leave the man in a life-and-death situation when he could easily help. "See you soon, Lionel," John said, and he hung up the phone.

It was by pure coincidence that Chloe saw the Impala drive past the school. She wouldn't even have been there—it was the last place she wanted to be, after graduating—except that the new Editor in Chief of the Torch was having a hard time with some of the equipment, and Lex had allowed Chloe a long lunch break to go help the poor girl out.

She would have known Dean's car anywhere, but it wasn't Dean driving. She vaguely remembered Lex once mentioning that the car wasn't Dean's, that it belonged to his father, but Lex seemed about as eager to talk about Dean's father as his own, so Chloe let it go.

But when he drove past the school, just as Chloe was parking her car, some instinct kicked in. Maybe it was because Dean always kept an eye on Smallville, and the fact that his father was here without him was strange. Maybe it was the fact that he was driving away from town rather than toward it. Or maybe it was just a gut feeling. Working with Lex honed those hunches.

Whatever it was, Chloe knew better than to ignore it. She pulled out of the parking lot and followed the Impala at a distance. Espionage was a skill that was required of her with some regularity, and she'd improved quite a bit since sneaking around with Clark in her early high school days. Of course, Clark wasn't doing much sneaking around these days, at least as far as she knew—his hands were full helping his parents with Ellie. She had just turned two, and she was apparently a handful.

Chloe lost the Impala twice, ensuring she wasn't caught, but picked up the trail again easily, because she had also suspected where it was going. She stopped following when it pulled onto the road that only led to the Luthor mansion.

She couldn't follow any further; she would certainly be seen, for one thing, but she also couldn't go to the mansion. Ever since Lex cut ties with LuthorCorp, and with his father, to research the Weird and Supernatural full time, he hadn't had access to the mansion. Lionel divided his time between it and his home in Metropolis, but the mansion security patrolled full time to keep Lex and his allies out.

Chloe pulled off to the side of the road at the first opportunity, and she called Lex.

"Hey, Chloe," he said. "How'd things go at the Torch?"

"Never got there. Saw the Impala headed to the mansion."

"Dean's here?"

"No, his dad."

A short silence on the other end, then, "I'll give Dean a call."

"No, I can do it. You focus on that grant proposal."

"It's in the bag."

"Still. I'm the one who saw the car."

"Fine. But keep me in the loop."

"Of course." She hung up and dialed Dean. It went to voicemail, so she tried the number for his other cell.

That one, he picked up. "Hello?"

"Dean? This is Chloe Sullivan. From Smallville?"

"Hey Chloe. Everything okay?"

"I was hoping you could tell me. I just saw your car. I'm assuming it was your dad driving."

"Yeah, I'm wrapping up loose ends on a case in Oregon. My dad left a note yesterday morning, saying he got a call—" Dean paused. "But it wasn't any of you, because you would have called me, not him. What's going on in Smallville, Chloe?"

"I don't know. But it looked like he was headed toward the mansion."

"Lex?"

"Moved out. Remember?"

Dean swore. "Stay away from the mansion, Chloe, do you hear me? Whatever's going on there—"

"You know I'm an adult now, right?"

"You have no idea how dangerous this could be."

"I work with Lex. We study the things you kill."

"Yeah, study. Books."

"And live subjects."

His voice caught. "You have . . . I'll come back to that. For now, you stay put."

"Lex and I are going to work on a way to get your father the message. Unless . . . is he bad news, too?"

"My dad's one of the good guys. Dunno what Luthor's been telling you."

"Right." Chloe chewed the side of her lip. "Well, Lex wanted you to know."

"I'll be on my way in a bit. Gotta make a stop for backup."

"Okay."

"Be careful, Chloe."

"You too," she said, and she hung up, leaning back in her seat before it dawned on her that she'd missed her meeting with the girl at the Torch, and Smallville High's lunch break was over in five minutes. Sighing, she picked up the phone again.