By the time I arrive in Virginia, a night has come and gone. After the artificial airport climate, the crisp morning air is a refreshing change of pace, but I'm much too nervous to enjoy it. All it means to me is that I'm closer to having to face Cas.

No one is at the airport to pick me up, probably because no one knows I'm here. Not for the first time, I ponder the intelligence of showing up unexpected. Regardless of how "joyous" this should be, I've definitely given my parents enough surprises to last the next few lifetimes.

I walk out to the pickup zone, looking for a cab. It takes about 30 seconds of scanning the line to find an unoccupied one. It isn't bad. I've heard horror stories about taxis, with drivers who drive erratically, overcharge, or turn out to be dangerous in a whole other way. But this woman leaves me to my thoughts. She does keep eyeing me in the rear view mirror, my fidgeting undoubtedly making her wary, but that's not unprecedented. Being 6'5" earns you a fair share of looks.

"What'd you do? Drop out of college?" she finally asks.

"What?" The question goes right over my head.

"You seem anxious is all," she explains, misunderstanding my confusion.

"Oh."

There's a silence.

The woman turns on the radio. "--underground modification lab may have been discovered," a man's voice comes on. It's a news story, unsurprisingly leaded with distress. "This possible lead was discovered in Iran," the anchorman continues, "when a soldier in pursuit of escaped prisoners stumbled upon what is believed to be a recently abandoned facility..."

I'm reminded of Cas and my hands are shaking again, my palms suddenly slick from the nerves. I try to focus on the excitement aspect of it, and it seems to work. I'm jittery for a whole other reason, now.

"Are you alright?" the woman asks, her wary look giving way to a suspicious one.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm just a little nervous is all," I answer this time, drawing from my excitement and managing a grin.

"Oh."

A pause.

"Visiting family?" she asks, trying to figure me out and ease her not unwarranted discomfort.

"More of a return," I answer.

"Oh." For a second, she seems hesitant to enter the subject of family matters, but soon rams onward and asks, "Not happy to see them?"

"Other way around," I correct.

"Parents?"

I hesitate. I'd been looking at her through the rearview mirror, but now I suddenly seem unable to keep my gaze. "My brother." I pause. "He didn't really approve of my choice to go."

There's a pause. Then, apparently finding my answer both believable and un-alarming, she focuses back on the road. I try to focus on the radio.

"...what do you think about this newly uncovered lead?" asks the anchorman.

"I don't think it'll be anything big," a woman's voice responds. "This is just another point in the recent rash of FALSE leads. Just like before, someone hyped up on the illegal experimentation buzz sees something and jumps to a conclusion."

"So you don't believe this will be the bust the case has needed?"

"No, I don't. Honestly this is all starting to seem like a plot from the head of a conspiracy nut."

You can say that again.

The radio woman continues, "All the cases these past few months have all ended in an empty lot somewhere. If this one ends the same way, which it most likely will, then we'll have to assume the initial lead was falsified."

What?

"So you don't think this illegal experimentation scare is legitimate?"

"At this point I'm doubting it, yes."

I scoot up in my seat. "Excuse me."

"Mhm?" the cab driver glances sideways at me.

"What 'cases' were they talking about?" I ask as the anchorman moves on to economic news.

"Didn't you hear? There's been this whole mania going around about a chain of illegal experimentation. Apparently they found DNA that had been tampered with."

"In Iran?"

"They say the group has set it up in a few places around the world but it's suppose to be centered somewhere in Europe." She shrugs as we turn a corner. "They've got no proof though." I can tell she's not a believer. Or a conspiracy nut, I guess might be more accurate with something supposedly so big.

I sink back into my seat, my mind refocused on my return now that the story has passed. I try and fail to listen to the radio as we cruise down an indistinguishable road.

The economy isn't that interesting.