Supernatural: Legacy S2 - Baby Got Gone

Maya sipped on her soy latte and scanned the news article on her phone, waiting for her partner to arrive. Since the Men of Letters had sent her the original article, news had been scarce on the baby disappearance of the Yates family. The doctors were still stumped, it seemed, and probably always would be.

Maya's eyes drifted down to the picture of David and Kathy Yates. The parents probably would be too, but that was for the best. If something supernatural did happen to their child, it couldn't be good.

"Makes a girl want to refuse to have kids," Maya mused, gazing at Kathy's tear-stained face before moving her eyes to Kathy's still-prominent stomach. "If there weren't enough reasons already."

James stared at his phone in disbelief, it was finally his chance to try his hand at a case. Although it had to be a case, relating to children, he grumbled at the thought, nonetheless it seemed interesting, he’d set aside his personal issues and attempt to work.

He pushed through the doors to the coffee shop with his phone in his hand, pondering who his partner might be. He hoped, hoped it was another guy. That way they would be less awkward tension…

Holding his phone in his hand he called the number he was provided with and waited to see who reacted to their phone, ringing.

Maya looked up as a man entered the coffee shop with phone in hand, looking incredibly awkward. She raised her eyebrows and assessed him silently.

Not bad looking, or a bad dresser. A little over-formal though. Maybe he was the office type who never bothered to pick up his own coffee when he could get his secretary to do it. It would certainly explain why he seemed so unnerved.

Her phone began to ring on the table beside her elbow. Maya blinked and stared from it to the man currently trying to call someone. Oh, could this be?

Maya picked up her phone and accepted the call, but she didn't speak. Instead she raised a hand and wiggled her fingers, unable to help but grin like a Cheshire cat at the look on the man's face.

A total deer-in-the-headlights. This ought to be fun.

James looked over to where the phone was left ringing and grimaced at the person at the table. It had to be someone who was his type...Why was he fated so?

He quickly recomposed himself and slowly walked over, assuming that she was waving at him. Either he was terribly unlucky today or just going to be made out to be a fool; James hoped it was the latter, so that way this could be dealt with quicker.

He stood at her table, and forced himself to smile; “Hi, I’m Ja-James.” He began to blush slightly at his stutter, first he had to be paired with someone he found attractive and then he made a fool of himself. Well done, me. At least she hopefully won’t flirt now. Not a second later after his stutter, he resumed talking. “I think, think we’re working together on this upcoming project, correct me if I’m wrong. And it’s a pleasure to meet you...Could I maybe, just maybe, get your name?” He stood there fumbling as his eyes looked away from the woman in front of him, with his crimson blush still covering his face. He had hoped that the loudness of the inhabitants of the coffee shop had made him harder to hear, hopefully making his stutter harder to notice.

Wow. This guy was even worse than she'd thought. Maya arched her elegant blonde eyebrows as the man - James, apparently - rambled on in front of her. It would almost be criminal to play with him.

Almost.

"Relax, Jimmy," she said, smiling coyly. "I don't bite. Most of the time."

She winked. Oh, this was definitely going to be fun. She waved a hand at the seat across from her to get him to sit down.

"I'm Maya Matlin," she continued cheerily. "I guess we'll be working together then. Make sure to watch my back, okay?"

Maya looked back at her phone and began to scroll through the information on the case.

"So what do you think we're dealing with here? A baby-eating monster? Or... maybe the baby is the monster? Just slithered right out on its own."

“Don’t bite...Most of the time?” His cheeks flustered a deeper crimson and he fidgeted slightly. “You’re not going to bite me, right?” He clumsily sat down on the seat in front of him and almost missed the chair entirely.

“I’ll do my best...But don’t bite me?” He sat there, staring slightly at the blonde before him. It would be his type...What was the agency doing, matchmaking? He thought to himself.

“Aren’t there childlike monsters or monsters that shift form?” He asked inquisitively as he attempted to be useful.

Maya laughed and cradled her head in her hands.

"Don't worry, hun," she said. "I only bite between the sheets."

Leaving him to ponder that, she looked back at the news and sighed.

"Well, there are changelings, but... no, that's not right. They swap out the kids, not just take them."

She shrugged and stood up.

"I'm stumped, honestly. I guess the best place to start is just to ask the couple in question. Shall we?"

He tilted his head in confusion wondering what Maya meant, “Bite in the sheets...That sounds interesting, maybe we could try that before we see the couple in question?”

He stood up behind, Maya with his phone in hand researching what she meant by in the sheets , his face gradually became more crimson as he continued his research. He gasped and put his phone away, as he blushed deeply.

“Chan-cha-Changelings...Could a human be im-impr-impregnated by such a thing and maybe, it compressed it’s bone structure and fell out of the womb?” He stuttered, overcome with embarrassment.

Maya stopped short at James' question. Did he actually just propose what she thought he did? Was that bumbling innocence thing just an act?

But then she turned and saw him tuck his phone away, cheeks flushed, and had to stifle a laugh. No, he really was that clueless. It would be depressing if it weren't so funny.

"I don't know. I don't think changelings work that way," she said, deciding to ignore his first question and address he second. "Or womb, for that matter..."

Shrugging, she headed out to her car and waved him over.

"Come on, it's more efficient to drive together," Maya said with a wink. "Hop in."

He walked over to the car, focusing on the floor as he walked; in an attempt to hide his embarrassment. How did I...Why did I even suggest such a thing?

"Wait, the womb doesn't work that way...No wonder I failed biology when I got taught it." He muttered.

James followed Maya to her car refusing to meet her eyes, stuck in his own delusions he tripped over his own shoe lace and fell onto to one knee, locking eyes with Maya for a moment; as a crimson blush covered his cheeks. "Erm, Maya...I have a question before we get in your car...Will you..."

Maya sighed as James seemed to trip over his own feet. This was starting to feel less like a case and more like an exercise in babysitting. Was this guy really a hunter? How was she supposed to trust him to handle monsters or ghosts when he couldn't even manage his own two feet?

Weirdly, he was still on one knee, blushing as he looked up at her. He said he had a question for her. "...Will you..."

Her eyes widened. Bended knee. Cheeks flushed. A 'will you' question. NO WAY. Was he...?

"I think maybe we should take separate cars," she interrupted hastily. "I'll meet you there!"

She jumped into the front seat and took off down the road. That was close. First thing's first...

Maya punched in the number for the Men of Letters, keeping an eye on her rearview mirror to see if James was following.

"Men of Letters, Kinsey speaking," came a pretty female voice.

"Hi, this is Maya Matlin," she replied. "I think there's been a mistake with my partner."

"Hi, Miya," Kinsey said pleasantly. "A mistake? You should be working with-"

She stopped abruptly, and Maya could hear the sound of typing keys.

"James Stewart, right?"

"Yeah, that's right," Maya answered, rubbing her forehead. "But..."

"Oh." Kinsey suddenly sounded awkward. "Did something happen? I've heard he's... not the easiest to deal with."

"That's an understatement," Maya muttered. "Looks it's fine, I guess. But if he dies tripping over furniture while some monster tries to eat us, it's totally not my fault."

"Wait, what?"

Maya hung up before Kinsey could inquire further. So much for that.

James sighed and watched Maya drive off as he wondered exactly what he'd done. He stood up and gazed at the floor once more, his shoe lace was undone... That's what he wanted to ask Maya about if she could do tie his shoelaces for him, as he wasn't exactly great at such exploits.

Why is it whenever I ask for help with my shoe laces, people run away. Am I really that bad? He thought, depressing himself and making him feel marginally worse.

I might as well catch up and ask, Maya to help me when I get there.

James proceeded to walk to his car, get inside it and drive towards where the couple's home was in the hopes of either solving the case or getting his shoe laces tied. Preferably both...

Maya pulled up in front of a nice suburban house, white with black roof and shutters, and studied it. There was a tree by one of the second story windows that could provide a possible entrance for something to get inside.

Maya reached into the panel beneath her arm rest and fished through various badges and credentials. Would it be better to pose as a government health official or a law enforcement officer? Well, she did have a partner. Maybe one of each would be a good idea.

Looking in her rearview mirror, she spotted James pulling up behind her and sighed. Couldn't be avoided.

"Hey," she said cheerfully, approaching his driver's window. "Which do you think you can pull off more convincingly - a government health official or a police detective?"

With his clumsiness and cluelessness, probably neither. This was going to be rough.

James gazed into her eyes and began to blush. "Will you...Do my shoe laces, I wanted to ask earlier but you ran off," he sighed and then proceeded to smile; "The one thing my father taught me was how to act...So don't you worry about that now, Maya."

James gestured towards opening the door, hoping that Maya would step out the way. It was time to use his few talents, although he was worried that his facade fell through at the last minute. But he has to down another one, even if it is for a brief moment.

Excitement filled his body, and he couldn't suppress an unnatural smile from spreading across his face. A few moments later, it saw his face in the rear view mirror and recomposed himself.

Now now, calm down. He thought to himself. "Now, Maya if you'd care to do my shoe lace for me...I'll get down on one knee again and I'll re-reallyy appreciate it," He began to blush and fidget under her gaze. "And I'll take the role of the health official, pleaseeee?"

His... shoe laces?

Maya stared at James, then down at his feet. Was he for real? Well, sure enough, they were untied.

"Uh...okay," she murmured. She knelt down and carefully knotted them for him - double-knotted, in fact, to make sure this wouldn't come up again.

Standing up, Maya put on a smile and dusted her hands. "There we go! All set."

She considered James request and decided it might be for the best. Perhaps they'd swallow some naïve man-child working as a health official better than a police detective.

"R-right," she said, faltering in her smile slightly. She tucked away her health official ID and produced a detective's badge instead. Nodding to James, she approached the front door and knocked.

"Hello?"

A brunette woman, presumably Kathy Bates, answered the door. She had a pleasant but tired face her hair pulled back messily into a ponytail.

"Hi, Mrs. Bates?" Maya asked. "We're here to ask you a few questions. It's... about your baby."

Within a few minutes, they were seated in the living room with cups of tea set in front of them, wisps of steam curling off of them into the air. Kathy Bates sat down on the sofa beside her husband David, a handsome, gentle-looking man.

"I'm glad you're here," Kathy said, her voice tired. "A part of me thinks that I should just move past this, stop trying to understand. That's what everyone tells me. But I just... can't. I can't understand any of it."

She put her head down. David put an arm around her, rubbing her shoulder soothingly. For a moment, Maya saw that stress and worry slip out too. He must be trying to stay strong for Kathy's sake, but no doubt the situation was affecting him just as strongly.

Maya glanced at James. Hopefully, he could pull this off. A bad move could not only hurt their investigation, but hurt this already fragile couple.

James itched the back of his head, attempting to look as if he felt uncomfortable at the couple’s woe. “Okay, so I’m Mr Stewart, my chosen career is as a health practitioner and official. My first question is how far along the pregnancy were you and did you smell anything particularly odd. The second question might seem old however it’s common for some pregnant women to experience uncomfortable smells and odd sights due to the senses being heightened during pregnancy.” James stopped to take a breath and reevaluate the couple, as he pondered potential questions he could ask.

“Another thing, due to your heightened senses during pregnancy anything odd you might have encountered could have cause levels of stress resulting in...A miscarriage. If you experienced anything odd whether it be an encounter, odd looking shadow or an unusual smell, please tell me and my beautiful partner, Miss Maitlin can vouch for my legitimacy and she’ll log anything you might say so that we can follow it up and find out what happened. In the hopes that you two can rest safely and happily,” James reached into his pocket, pulling out his wallet and pulled out a health official ID. Edward had so many of these fake documents made, who knew they’d be useful. The young man thought to himself, he then proceeded to wait for their response to his friendly questioning (interrogation).

He stood there itching the back of his head whilst attempting to seem sympathetic and pretend to wipe his eyes.

The couple stared at James as he ranted on. Maya fought the urge to stare as well.

"Not the most downplayed of performances, but, at least, he's stammering and stumbling over his words," she thought. Maybe he was some kind of idiot savant who could improvise really well.

"Uh, no," Kathy said, shaking her head. "There was only..."

Subconsciously, she put a hand to her stomach. Maya frowned, her eyes softening.

"Any information could help, ma'am," she said gently. "We want to find answers for you."

David nodded. Kathy glanced at him, then down at her lap.

"There was a coating of something in my... well, you know. I thought it might have been some kind of biological response to whatever happened to the baby."

Maya glanced at James. "A coating?"

"Viscous," David supplied. "Like mucus?"

Maya frowned. This was definitely turning into an odd case.

James raised his eyebrows, as he listened to the couple talking. "Ah, mucus...Any particular colour and was there anything else that was noteworthy?" HE said, fidgetting slightly as a crimson covered his cheeks. He really should've been the police officer, as such conversations really threw him off.

"Ah, Maya...Do you have any questions that could potentially help us in solving this situation?" He smiled at Maya, whilst tilting his head. I really hope that Maya has an idea for what this could be.

Kathy shook her head. "N-no, nothing especially noteworthy."

Maya exchanged looks with James. Why would she, as the police officer, have questions about mucous-y nether regions.

"Uh," she said. "Was there anything unusual about that night? Did you eat anything strange?"

Kathy shrugged. David looked out the window.

"I don't think so. Just a casserole our neighbor Lyell made. He just got back from the Philippines and wanted to have us over to celebrate the pregnancy. He'd been gone a few months, so he only just found out about it."

A neighbor, huh? It might amount to nothing, but it was worth checking out.

"Thank you for your time," Maya said, smiling gently. "Please let us know if you think of anything."

She gestured to James and led the way out. Once outside, she peered around at the neighboring houses. David had been looking straight out the living room at the mention of Lyell, which meant his house was probably the one directly opposite.

"What do you say we pay Lyell a visit?" she asked, setting off across the road.