Part 21
John walked into the diner and ordered a cup of coffee. He had gotten to the bottom of it when the other side of his booth was filled with an old, gray face. It made John wish he smoked. Bobby flipped his hat off his head and thwapped it against the window sill. “Hell, I thought Sam was crazy until I laid eyes on you.”
“That so?” John motioned for another cup.
“It explains a lot about the last time I saw you… which, by the look of you, was yesterday.” His beady eyes raked John over. “Was it yesterday for you?”
“Close to it.” Leave it to Bobby to notice right off the age difference.
“We really did salt and burn you two years ago, didn’t we.”
“I think so.”
Bobby’s eyes drifted to the waitress on the other side of the restaurant, who smiled and waved at him. “She never found out about you dying. I never thought to call her. Sam didn’t know about her.”
“She never found out.” John agreed. “She didn’t miss a beat.”
“How are you here, John? I don’t remember you going missing for two years.”
“No… I took a walk one day and I ended up here. Dean’s gone… and then I take a walk right back and Dean’s alive.”
“You sure?”
“The first time… I might have been drunk. Figured I dreamed it up. How does that happen? Walking fifteen years into the future.” John rubbed a hand over his face. “Jesus, and I met Sam the other day and that was a slap in the face.”
“You been going back and forth?”
“Yes! I’ve been saving Dean this whole time. Trying to prevent the things that I’m finding and he keeps dying.”
“You been changing things?”
“Of course! I can’t let him die.”
“Calm down, John.” Bobby raised his hands slowly. “I know how much your boys mean to you. I know what you were like right after Sam left. Just calm down.” He clasped his hands on the table. “You know… off the top of my head… someone says something about woods and booze and waking up years in the future and I think of Rip Van Winkle.”
“Well, I didn’t meet with any trolls or funny old men. I just walk right on through. I don’t even need to be drunk.”
Both men shut their mouths when Liz walked up to the table. She refilled John’s cup and was about to ask Bobby what he’d like when she slammed the coffee pot down on the table and ran for the back door. John sipped his cup and waited for Bobby to comment. Liz returned after she had rinsed her mouth out. She poured Bobby a cup and one for herself. “I’m too old to do this again.”
John glanced her over. She still looked a little green. “You off soon?”
“Hour more. Kids will be home hour after that.” Liz shrugged her shoulders and stretched her back. She gulped the coffee down then picked up the pot to return to her other tables.
John didn’t look up but he could feel the heat of Bobby’s glare. “I know it. Bobby, don’t give me grief.”
“You knocked her up? John, are you crazy?”
“Been accused of it.”
“You gotta walk back through and not come back. You can’t keep coming back and expect much will change.”
“Well, I don’t have your help when I walk back through, Bobby. You don’t believe me.”
“All that shit you spun me was you trying to justify yourself. It wasn’t the truth.”
“Well, now you know. Tell me what I do when I go back.”
“Why did you go see Sam, John?”
“Can you believe what he’s become, Bobby? How did he get like that?”
Bobby took a breath and figured John would ignore what he wanted and focus on what he thought he needed. “I won’t say I saw it coming but when Azazel killed his girl, things were going on with that boy and after the big showdown that got Dean killed, Sam just walked on over to the darkside to do as he saw fit.” He lifted a hand to stay John’s tongue. “I’m not saying the boy is evil but the line of good and evil that he’s on is broad and fuzzy.”
“When did his girl die?”
“Near as I can figure, before that night with Dean’s Dead Man’s Hand. Don’t know how long before.”
“So, it’s too late for me to save her.”
“But not to save him.”
--
John stared long and hard at the picture they made before making his presence known. Dean flipped through the book and scratched his head. “What happened to normal names?”
“Like what?” Liz lay on the floor with her feet propped on the couch next to Dean’s knee.
“John and Mary and Sam. Look at this thing. “Cindi with an ‘I’ and Cyndy with two ‘y’s. It’s ridiculous.” Dean snorted. “Danyael spelled ‘y-a-e-l’, when did the world go crazy?”
“I’m partial to John, myself.” He announced with a clearing of his throat.
“Hey, John.” Liz smiled but didn’t get up.
“Hey, Dad.” Dean turned with a grin. “Might get confusing with two Johns around.”
He jerked his head towards the hallway. “Mind if I use your guest room for a private phone conversation?”
“Um… sure.” Dean frowned but nodded and pointed. There was no reason to ask or to utter the phrases. He waited a minute before picking up the extension in the kitchen against Liz’s glare.
The phone rang in John’s ear. He could hear confusion in the voice that answered. “Hello?”
“Sammy?”
“Dad?”
“I’m not picking a fight with you, son but… why didn’t you call after the fire?”
A long silence. “Who told you about the fire?”
“Word gets around.” John wished he could see the boy’s face so that he would know what he was thinking. “She died then?”
“Yeah, Dad.” There was a long shaky breath. “Her name was Jess… and she died.”
“Tell me how it happened.” Silence. “Sam. Was she on the ceiling?”
“Yes. She was on the ceiling. She burned. Okay?”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Well, you weren’t talking to me. I don’t know what good it would have done.”
“At the very least, we could have gone back to get you, Sam. That’s… not something you should have to deal with alone.” John bit back more reprimands. “It’s good to hear your voice, son. I am sorry about your girl.”
“What are you and Dean hunting?” Sam cleared his throat. “I’ll meet you.”
“Well, Dean’s not been much for hunting these days but I’d suggest you hear it from him, not me.” John couldn’t hide the smile in his voice. “We’re in New York, Catskills. Tiny little nothing in the mountains. Cooling our heels for now. I’ll be checking on what happened to your girl. I’m still looking for that son of a bitch. I’d welcome your help.”
“I… I’ll come.”
--
Liz looked up from her midnight snack and cleared her throat to warn John she was sitting there. “You’re going back to the motel?”
“Maybe.” John nodded as he polished off his whiskey.
“You leaving in the middle of the night or are you going to wait for Sam to show?”
“Still thinking that one out.”
“Please, wait.” She stirred the melting remains in her bowl. “I’m glad you called him. I know that it was a battle of wills who was going to call who first but… you are the… um… more mature option in that equation.”
“Yeah, I know. I know. Took me long enough.”
“How did you know? About his girlfriend?”
“He talks to some people still.”
“You are welcome to stay here, you know.”
“I know.”
Liz dumped her bowl in the sink and ran the water through it. She stood over him, one hand resting on the small belly she’d grown since he’d last seen her. “Get some rest, John. You look better than you’ve been.”
She kissed the top of his head and ran right into Dean coming to look for her. “Hey… save some of that for me.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead then turned her to face his dad. “Look at this thing. She just popped right out.” He pointed to her belly. “She’s barely pregnant.”
“Yeah.” John nodded to Dean’s excitement. “Well, she’s a little woman. Hiding a Winchester isn’t easy.”
“Okay. Enough baby talk. It gets him all riled up and then he can’t sleep.” Liz cleared her throat to remind them she was still in the room. “Night, John. Come on Dean. We’re going to have a talk about boundaries.”
--
Dean sat hunched over the table with a lamp and his tools. “Dad, what’s the sigil we used back in St. Louis?”
John peered at the leg of the cradle then traced out the sigil he had used on that hunt. “Are you just going to cover the thing in mystical sigils?”
“Well, some of them are for protection… and some of them just look cool.” He tilted his head at his dad. “But they’re all safe.”
“I trust you.” John rubbed Dean’s head and lifted a second leg to examine the carvings. “Smooth bevels.”
“I do try.”
“So, what have you been doing for money?”
“On call at the body shop. When they don’t need me, I do a turn at the register downstairs… and on slow weeks… I head to the next town over for some good old fashioned pool sharking.” Dean grinned. “Locals know me already but they still don’t learn.”
“Guess they like giving you their money.”
“They should just hand it over when I walk in but… gives Liz some space. She says I smother her.”
“I wonder why she would say that.” John teased as he lowered himself into a chair.
“Maybe… I talk a lot… and I ask a lot of questions… and I don’t go away on hunts as often as I used to.” Dean shrugged and rolled his eyes. “Maybe I… hang around to see if she needs anything.”
“Also, you smell bad.”
“What are you talking about, I shower.”
“It’s a hormone thing son. Right now, your smell skeeves her out. She’ll snap at you for no reason. Burst into tears over a long distance phone commercial. Your mom made me sleep on the couch for a month when she was pregnant with you… and two months when she was pregnant with your brother.”
“Is that why you slept with me before Sammy was born?”
“That’s right. I did.” John laughed as he recalled the forts and late night man-to-man talks with his nervous four-year-old. “I had forgotten about that.”
“I remember some pretty random shit.” Dean shrugged and grinned.
“At least you can remember it.”
The grin faded. “So… that pretty girl that we saw hanging all over Sammy… she died?”
“Yeah.”
“The thing that killed Mom did it?”
“Looks that way.”
“Then why are we sitting here?”
“It’s long gone. Sam… was on top of things.”
“He’s out of practice.”
“No, he was taking care of himself.”
“Since when are you on the Sammy-bandwagon?”
“Since I realized how much I fucked up my family, Dean.” John stared at his now petulant son. “And unless I do something now, it’s only going to get worse in ways that can’t be fixed.”
“Dad… is this part of your near-death break down?”
“Maybe.”
“But you’re still the baddest badass Dad, right?”
“Well, of course.”
“Alright then. I’ll deal with the shithead when he gets here.”
“Don’t call your brother a shithead… he’s in mourning.”
“Well, he’s still a douchebag.”
“That’s between the two of you.”
--
Sam could see them through the window, hear them if he listened hard enough.
“Dean Winchester, get your hands off my stove and scrub that grease off your fingernails before you dare taste my sauce.”
“Fine. Fine.” Dean trudged over to the sink, but not before he wrapped his hands around her middle and left grease stains all over a shirt with some local band’s logo on it. It earned him a smack upside the head… and a deep rumbling laugh from the table’s sole occupant.
The girl gasped suddenly and grabbed her middle, which was basketball shaped under the pressure of her hands. “I think it kicked.”
Dean placed his hand over her belly and grinned after a moment. “I’m not an expert but I think you’re right.”
“John, feel.” She stepped to the table and forced his hand to her belly. “It’s kicking, right?”
“That is a kick. Strong one.” After a moment, John turned so he could place both hands on her belly. “If I’m not mistaken, this is a Winchester boy.”
“Proud grandpa on the loose.” She teased and took her belly back to the stove to finish fixing dinner. “Watch out. It’s too soon to know the sex, John.”
“Call it a feeling… and like I keep saying. John’s a good strong name for a boy.”
“We’ll keep it in mind.” Dean snorted as he dried his hands. “What about Jonah?”
“Judah.” The brunette corrected. “Judah.”
“Judah Winchester… that’s for a girl, right?” John laughed.
“I told you!” Dean jabbed a finger at her.
“It’s a man’s name. It was my grandfather’s name.” She smacked his finger away.
“What’s your dad’s name?” John prompted.
“Jeff.”
“That’s the name of a college student.” Dean protested.
“Your brother’s a college student.”
“But he has a man’s name.”
That made Sam laugh enough that he had to knock a moment later. Dean froze but crossed the kitchen to open the door. “Hey.”
“Hey.” Dean nodded, then glanced behind him. “So, you smelled food all the way from California and came running?”
“Um… Dad… invited me.” Sam shifted his weight awkwardly.
“What’s the matter with you?” Dean jerked his brother into the apartment and hugged him. “You’re family, little brother.” After a moment, Sam returned the hug, squeezing his eyes shut against the tears. Then Dean shoved him away. “Dude, come on. We’re family but not that kind.”
That made Sam laugh. “Glad to see that some things never change.”
“Hey Sammy.” John had risen and gave Sam the hug he’d been looking for.
“Hey Dad?” Sam’s shoulders hitched only once. “This really you?”
“Yeah, Sammy. It’s really me.” He ran his hand through the mop of hair on his boy. “You need a haircut.”
Snorting back a laugh, Sam stepped back. “Yeah, it’s really you.”
“Hey, Sammy, this is Liz.” Dean hung his arm over his girlfriend’s shoulders. “She’s family, too.”
“Hi, it’s good to finally meet you.” Liz held out her hand.
Sam shook it firmly, eying her belly the whole time. “Some other news, Dean?”
“Yeah. Observant, this one.” Dean jerked his thumb at Sam. “Yeah, Sam. Liz and I are having a baby.”
“What’s this you and I business?” Liz stared up at him. “You’re not carrying the bladder-kicker. Excuse me.”
Dean watched her go for a moment before turning back to his brother. “Well, sit down. I’ll save dinner before it burns.”
John and Sam sat for a minute so that the younger man could take in all the changes in the world. “It’s like walking into the Twilight Zone.” Sam wiped a hand over moist eyes. “When did you guys settle down?”
“I settled.” Dean clarified. “And it hasn’t been so long, I guess.”
“And you’re on board with this?” Sam looked to his father.
“I made a lot of mistakes in my life, Sam.” John took a breath. “Not the first of them… that fight we had… I never wanted this life for you boys. It took… a few long walks and a drunken stumble into the hospital to open my eyes. Maybe a talk or two with a certain stubborn young lady.” Liz snorted from her spot in the doorway, sporting a clean shirt. “I owed you boys a choice that I never had.”
“Well, it’s not a choice for me anymore.” Sam’s eyes welled with moisture. He cleared his throat. “I… had been about… to ask Jess to marry me. I… had planned it out and all I needed… was to get accepted to law school…”
“Did you get accepted?” Liz prompted.
“I um… missed the interview because I had to sit with Jess’s parents to identify the body.”
“How about that?” John nodded to himself. “My son, in law school.”
“Well, I figured that you’d need a lawyer sooner or later.”
“Okay, Matlock. Eat your dinner.” Dean slid a plate under his nose and one under his father’s, then looked at the table. “Hey… uh, Liz… do you realize that we only have three chairs?”
“Sit, I’ll eat in a minute.” She waved him on. Then sat reluctantly when he held the chair out and placed a piled plate in front of her. “I can wait the ten minutes it’s gonna take you to inhale this plate.”
“That’s yours and anyway… you’re eating for two now.”
“Or six… you know… the way Dean eats. The kid could have four stomachs too.” Sam grinned at his brother’s bitchface.
“I can still whoop your ass.” Dean motioned for his brother to come at him.
“You’re on.”
“Boys. Enough. Eat your dinner before it gets cold and don’t make me remind you the rules about sparring in the house.” John jabbed his fork at each in turn.
“You raised two boys, huh.” Liz bit her lip as she twirled pasta on a fork. Sam settled in to eat his dinner. Dean took his on the counter top. “So, um, Sam. I have to ask. What’s your stance on aliens?”
John nearly choked on his mouthful of spaghetti. Sam blinked at his father, then glanced at his totally sober brother. “Um… I hadn’t really thought about it.”
“Well, Dean thinks that aliens are cool as long as the chicks are hot and they don’t want to blow the world up. John thinks they’re evil and should go away.”
“I never said that.” John stabbed his fork into his plate. “My concerns about aliens had nothing to do with evil.” His eyes flicked to Dean and back to his plate. “Besides, I thought we came to a truce about that.”
Dean waved his fork at Sam. “Don’t mind them. They have cryptic conversations like this a lot. Dad likes to spill his guts to pretty girls when he’s drunk.”
“I thought we all learned our lesson about pretty girls with Miss Lyle.” Sam shook his head.
“Oh, Dude! I forgot about Miss Lyle!” Dean exclaimed.
“Who was Miss Lyle?” Liz prompted.
“She was this demonic teacher that Sam had.”
“Dean.” John shook his head but the younger man kept talking.
“Dad totally fell for her.” Dean forked more pasta into his mouth.
“Turns out she was—“ Sam started but Liz cut him off.
“A demon?” Liz guessed.
“She tried to kill Sam and I was telling Dad the whole time that something was wrong with her but no one believed me. She had him so snowed.”
Liz saw John’s frown and the way he rubbed his forehead but the boys kept talking until long after their spaghetti was gone and John’s was a congealed mess on his plate. “Dean? Could you make a run to the ice cream place before it closes?”
“Now? I’ve got like two minutes to get there.” Dean checked his watch.
“Please?”
“Yeah, okay. Dad? You want?”
“No, I’m good.” John shook his head.
“Sam?”
“I’ll come with.” Sam got to his feet.
After a minute in the quiet, John picked up his plate and dumped it in the trash. He found Dean’s whiskey and poured himself a drink. Liz followed him outside, across the lot and up to the bench overlooking the woods. “It’s been a long time since we were up here.” John only nodded. “So, since I can’t drink with you, how about we pretend that we just emptied the bottle and played all the cat and mouse games you like and just talk about who Miss Lyle was to you.”
John didn’t speak, just took a long slug on his bottle.
“Okay… so maybe we find out why you stopped eating your dinner when you were pushing so hard for spaghetti since breakfast…”
“Sue Lyle was… I stopped moving around for a bit. I got myself a scare on a hunt and decided to stop hunting. I figured that hunting was going to get me and the boys killed. So, I found a town. I got a job. The boys were in school and Sue Lyle was Sam’s teacher.” John knocked back another slug. “I’d almost forgotten about her… until Sam brought her up.”
“Sounds like she was more than just Sam’s teacher.”
“She… grew on me. She was nice and sweet and she looked out for Sam. He got to do all the things he wanted in her class because she took an interest. I’m a dad. Quickest way to get my attention is through my boys.” He took a breath. “She got my attention, then she held it.”
“There haven’t been a lot of women in your life since Mary, have there?”
“Sue Lyle was the first… the last.”
“Oh.”
“I… didn’t know what I was doing. She seemed normal enough. She was giving us a normal life… encouragement for a better life. Dean hated her from the get go and probably initially because she held our attention. Dean hated that school and the kids and everyone else… He saw something in her that I didn’t. He tried to tell me and in retrospect… if I had believed him that first night, I never would have slept with her.” John took a long, long pull on the bottle. “I ignored a lot. She… enraptured me. She made good spaghetti. She was beautiful and kind… and when she tried to kill… I made her pay with her life.”
“John, I’m sorry.”
“I can’t believe I let myself forget her.”
“John, quit blaming yourself.”
“The boys pay for all my mistakes.” Liz jerked the bottle out of his hand before he could take another drink. John held her eyes for a moment. “Dean’s my best friend. He was at that point and I let him down.” He took the bottle back but didn’t lift it to his lips. “Dean blamed himself for that Shtriga that almost killed Sam. I… remember that night. Vividly.”
Liz took his hand and placed it on her belly but didn’t interrupt. “I had been out for awhile. Left Dean to watch Sam. I didn’t want to scare him so I didn’t tell him too much about the hunt. Left him with all the right ammo, just in case.” He took a breath and sniffed the open bottle but didn’t take another pull. “I was tired. I’d been dragging ass and the life wasn’t getting any easier. I caught wind of the son of a bitch and I didn’t lose it. It moved fast and I think that… made the boys a target. It wasn’t the first night on the hunt but I couldn’t tell you if it was the second or twelfth but I had been on it a while. When I followed it back to our motel… I couldn’t move my feet. I was tired and I was scared because my boys were the only two children in the motel and I couldn’t move.” He swallowed down a lump in his throat. “I had some theories about why all my research was coming up empty on ways to kill it. I figured that it had to begin feeding before the consecrated iron rounds would work because they hadn’t so far. That’s when I could move because… I couldn’t use my boys as bait.”
“So, you burst in and saved the day?”
“I snuck in. Dean had his shot gun in his hand and he’d done what I had in the parking lot. He was frozen because that was his baby brother and the Shtriga was starting to feed but… he heard us or something because when I took the shot, it didn’t faze him. He jumped out the window and I had to get the boys to safety before I could go after it. Safety was a couple hundred miles away…”
“John.”
“After the Shtriga, a friend of mine had gotten mixed up with a town of Succubi… and so… I decided that hunting evil was getting my family nowhere… and that’s when I met Sue Lyle.” He shrugged as he took a pull on the bottle. “In retrospect, it fits with Dean’s guilt over that damned thing. He thinks I don’t trust him.”
“Maybe he didn’t but I think he has more faith in your trust now.”
“Promise me that this kid won’t hunt.” John rubbed her belly. “He’ll have a knack for it that’ll be uncanny but promise me that he’ll have options.”
“I can guarantee you that it’ll have plenty of options.”
--
Sam set his bag down on the bed and turned to Dean, who jerked his head towards the door. Quietly, they walked down to the Impala. “Is Dad okay?”
“He’s fine. This is what he does now.” Dean shrugged.
“He admits to his wrongs?”
“Dad’s been having a time of it, I told you.” Dean bit out. “Look… for whatever reason, he trusts her. She’s good for him. I never… I mean…”
“You never saw what he was doing to you because you thought you deserved it.” Sam clarified their childhood for him. “Man, that wall was like paper. How does he sleep in that room?”
“I think that’s the only reason he does sleep in that room. Don’t tell Liz, ever, about that wall being paper.”
“You knew?”
“Yeah, I knew. We’d been living in that motel since about six months after you took off. Our second fight, I could hear them talking about me when I was taking a shower. You could hear everything.”
“So, why can’t she know?”
“You know how many times we fucked on that landing while dad was in the room?”
“Jesus, Dean. She’s the mother of your child. You can’t go around saying things like that.”
“I’m just saying. It’s bad enough Dad walked in on us that one time. If she knew that Dad had been listening to us screw, she’ll never talk to him again.”
Sam made a face. “You think he was listening.”
“There was no way that he wasn’t.”
Sam nodded and glanced up at the motel but couldn’t see onto the landing from the parking lot. “You think Dad really never slept with any woman but Miss Lyle since Mom died?”
“No. He’s gotten some tail in his time. Last year, he kept taking off and sometimes… you could smell her on him. I think they broke up or something cause he’s been crabby and he’s been here for like two weeks straight.” Dean stared off into the night. “I think maybe… he fell a little harder for Miss Demontail than he thought… and now I’m sorry I made any jokes about it.”
“Demontail?”
“Dude, her shadow… totally had horns, a tail and fucking wings.”
“You’re a moron. How did you ever land a girl like Liz?”
“His dad was hot and I felt sorry for him.” Liz cleared her throat from behind them.
“Hey.” Dean tugged her to him. “What did I say about calling the old man ‘hot’?”
“That’d you spank me if I ever mentioned it again.”
“Spanking? Really?” Sam gagged. “Okay. I’m gonna go and keep Dad company. You two… make me sick.”
TBC
Time Has Come Today (SPN/ROS,UC,AU,MA)Part 27 10/26 COMPLETE
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Re: Time Has Come Today (SPN/ROS, UC, AU, MA) Part 22 10/22
Part 22
John listened to Sam’s investigation findings. It was eerily similar to what he had found all those years ago when he had investigated Mary’s death. Then Sam had gone stiff and didn’t say anything for a long time. “Dad… I think that I could have stopped it but…”
“How?” John looked up from his notebook where he’d been making and comparing notes.
“I had these dreams for weeks before it happened. I just figured that… I was… you know afraid that marrying her would drag her into our life and I tried to put it out of my mind… and then it happened… exactly the way I dreamed it.”
“Dreams?”
“Nightmares. Visions. Whichever. It happened… and I’m afraid that it’s going to happen again.”
“Have you told your brother?”
“No… because he was in the last dream I had… which is why I answered the phone when you called.”
“That right?”
“But I didn’t actually expect him to be with someone and for that someone to be pregnant.” Sam turned to look out the window. “When did that happen, by the way?”
“Been in and out of this town for two years… nearly the whole time… those two…”
“And you let him?”
“He’s a grown man. He can make his own decisions.”
“You didn’t try to stop him?”
“Who says I didn’t?” John cleared his throat, met his son’s disbelieving eyes for a brief moment. “It didn’t take.”
“Wow. Dean stood up to you? I never saw that one coming.”
“Who said it was Dean?”
“She stood up to you?” Sam turned and laughed. “Wow… no wonder Dean likes her.”
“Be clear now. He loves her. Took him a while but now he’s standing his ground.” John managed a grin. “Liz once told me I was like one of those mama lions that lick their cubs to death.”
“She knows her wildlife?”
“Well, she’s not a bimbo. You’re going to have to redefine the way you look at your brother. He’s grown a lot since you’ve been gone.”
“Oh?”
“Liz has been good for your brother. I caused them both a lot of grief… so don’t give them any.” John heard the tone of his voice and expected Sam to burst out but the kid only nodded. “Good.” He cleared his throat. “So… this dream you had of Dean and Liz… when does it happen?”
“Sometime after the baby is born. We have some time but probably not enough.”
“It’ll have to be enough.”
--
John stared at the woods but didn’t dare go in. He’d promised Bobby… that future Bobby. Would staying away be enough to break the pattern? He was still sitting on the bench when the Chevelle pulled into the lot. It parked at the motel and it carried only one occupant. John knew his profile well. Knew who he was to Liz. Knew that he probably hadn’t told her that he was coming. Rising, he walked slowly but purposefully to the lot. The man pulled out a cell phone and started glancing around as he dialed.
“Can I help you, bud?” John cleared his throat.
“No, I’m fine. Thanks.” The younger man’s eyes narrowed at him. He lifted the phone to his ear. “Liz, it’s me. We need to talk… I’m in the parking lot.” John waited but didn’t say a word. He knew Liz was thinking about coming down but hadn’t made up her mind yet. Finally the young man turned to face him. “Thanks, but I’m waiting for someone.”
“She’ll come down if she wants to.” John crossed the lot to the little store. Liz was standing on the landing but unsure of climbing down. “Want me to tell him to take off?”
“No… I got it. I should probably tell him about this anyway.” She rubbed her belly. She slowly stepped into the lot. John sat on the staircase to keep watch. A few minutes later, he felt a body sit a few steps behind him.
Liz kept her distance and talked softly. When they had caught up to the point where she was pregnant, the man’s face had gone white. There were some heated words in soft tones. Sam cleared his throat. “Who is that guy? Dean’s stalking the apartment like a caged lion.”
“That would be her ex-husband.” John barely managed to contain the shaking of his head on that statement.
“He come up often?”
“No, been about a year and a half since he was last up here. Upset her something terrible.”
Sam let a thoughtful pause hang for a moment while he weighed the pros and cons of this past relationship interfering with his brother’s life. “Is it gonna happen again?”
“No. She’s got what she wants now. He’s got nothing left to offer her.”
“Really, what’s that?”
“She’s got a man to love and a child on the way that will make it to the light of day…”
“What?”
“She had three miscarriages while she was with him. It soured their marriage. Six months after she moved up here, she met Dean… they’ve been together ever since. I don’t think she told him about Dean the last time he was here.”
“No! I told you! I told you!” Liz shouted, shoving Max away. “If we ended it, it was for good. No going back!”
“Liz! I love you and I know you still love me.”
“It’s not enough!” She screamed and backed away, her arms twitching. “I told you that it wasn’t enough and you said you understood. I told you that I couldn’t do it again and I was telling the truth.”
“But you can have a baby with a man you hardly know?”
“Hardly know? At least HE’S never been afraid to love me, Max. For once, I have all of a man and not just the parts he wants to show me.”
“Well, that’s a sword that goes both ways, now isn’t it.”
“How was I supposed to trust you? Huh?” Liz ran her hands through her hair. “You can’t do this to me. You can’t just… show up and expect that I’m going to be here for you. In love with you… it’s been nearly 3 years, Max. I’ve moved on. I’ve carved out a life for myself. I’m starting my own family.”
“Do they know about you?” He eyed her carefully.
“They know enough to respect what I can’t tell them.” She lied.
“Which one is he?”
“At the top of the stairs.”
“I need to talk to you.” Max started toward the staircase. John glanced back to find Dean leaning on the railing. “Now.”
“No!” She tugged on his arm to make him face her. “You don’t get to do this. I don’t need your permission. We stopped playing that game when Isabel died!”
“Don’t you say her name.” Max growled.
“Don’t threaten my family.” She shoved him and sparks flew between her hands and his stumbling body.
Max gasped as the pain shot through his body. “Liz… what?”
“Don’t threaten them.” She repeated, tears in her eyes. She looked up when a thud sounded in front of her. “Jesus, Dean! Are you crazy?”
John and Sam blinked when they realized that Dean had just leapt from the top of the staircase to the ground. Dean nudged her toward the stairwell. “Go calm down. Max and I are going to have a conversation.”
Looking over her shoulder, Liz stumbled to sit between John’s legs. He anchored her with hands on her shoulders. “What’s going to happen? Some macho fight?”
“Sometimes there are conversations that need to happen between two men regarding a lady in common.” John reassured her.
“Yeah, like what?”
“Like the time that Mary’s uncle sat me down to discuss how important she was to him because she was the only family he had left aside from a few distant cousins. I was instructed that I was to do everything in my power to see that she had the kind of life she had always wanted.”
“I didn’t know she had an uncle.” Sam interrupted.
“He died when you were a baby.”
“When?”
“A few months after your mother did.” John hated to remember that old man but he was one of the few reasons that John had started down this path in his life.
“Why don’t you talk about her to your boys, John?” Liz jabbed a finger into his knee. “It’s painful but they only have what you remember and… you’re not going to be around forever.”
“Careful, you’re approaching Earth logic.” Sam warned half-heartedly.
“Mary was my life. I did everything for her. She was… a light at the end of the tunnel after Vietnam. Losing her cost me more than I’ll ever know.” John admitted. “How do you lose your life and keep living?”
“What about your kids?” Sam demanded.
“Probably was the only reason I ever came home alive from any hunt, Sam.” He took a long shaky breath. “I love you boys but Mary was my world. The world I see without her is filled with monsters and demons and credit card fraud and watching how I destroyed my sons without even trying.”
“John.” Liz turned to face him. “What did she do that would piss you off?”
He laughed suddenly. “God, she used to steal my socks to dust with and then throw them away. She always slathered mayo on my BLT even though I always told her that I preferred mustard. Every single time that we fought, she always brought up that I looked at other ladies a half a second too long and that would start a whole other fight.”
“Bet the makeup sex was wild.” Liz laughed. Sam gagged.
“You would know about that, wouldn’t you.”
“What?” Liz blinked at him.
“Like you don’t pick fights with Dean.”
She turned away to hide her grin. “Well, he is an aggravating man.”
“And leaves himself wide open for ridicule.”
“On occasion.” She flicked his knee. “Wonder where he gets that trait from.”
“Are you saying I’m open for mockery?”
“Well, I might mock you openly if I didn’t feel Colonel Marine Badass would beat me down.”
“I would never hit a woman.”
“You hit plenty of women.” Sam muttered.
“Those were evil women.” John justified.
“Of course, they were evil. If they did something to deserve a smack down by Mr. John Winchester, they had to be evil. A gentleman only hits a woman if she’s planning evil world domination.” Liz teased.
“Which is different than good world domination?” Sam countered.
“Well, of course. If a hot woman decides she’s going to dominate the world with sunshine and rainbows, John Winchester lays his jacket over the puddle in her way. If it’s for killing puppies and murdering virgins, John Winchester shoves her down and drowns her in the puddle.”
“Alright, enough, kids.” John tugged her back against him, then reached back and thumped Sam on the chest.
“You know, I heard Superman… wears Batman underoos.” Sam leaned back and away from his father’s reach. It was a joke he and Dean had shared and made in the few good moments they’d had after Sam had been let in on the family secret. It was a test of sorts for the newest member of the family.
“Oh, yeah?” Liz rose to stand over the two of them. “I heard Batman wears John Winchester underoos.”
“Don’t be stupid. Batman wears Dean Winchester underoos.” Dean cut in.
“And we all know.” Sam started, then Liz joined in. “That Dean Winchester doesn’t wear underoos.”
“You go commando one time.”
“You did it, in Oklahoma, after running through the bushes after deflowering the sheriff’s daughter, which I had expressly told you not to do.” John thumped him on the forehead. “Then got caught on camera by a news crew investigating prowlers two seconds after tripping over your own shoes… Johnson waving in the air for the world to see.”
“He’s the pride and joy of the family, you know.” Sam addressed Liz. “You picked a winner.”
“So… did you kill him?” Liz reached over the railing to grip Dean by the shirt.
“Nah…” he ran his hands through her hair. “We had a talk, man to man, and we came to an understanding. He’ll wait for you to call him no matter how long it takes.”
“I can still kill him though, right?” John cleared his throat. “For… checking out your ass when you’re clearly off the market.”
“Down, Papa.” Liz tapped her finger against his nose.
“So… how’s about a road trip? I’m thinking Vegas.” Dean looked to his father and brother, who nodded their assent.
“No. I don’t do Vegas.” Liz shook her head.
“Lake Tahoe?”
“Maybe.”
John blinked rapidly to wrap his head around the idea. His son had just half-assed a marriage proposal. His son. He was very close to being ashamed except that Liz was in step with him… and this event had never happened in the future that he was used to visiting.
“Only if we can fly.”
Dean froze. Sam raised an eyebrow. John leaned back and waited for Dean to unfreeze. Sam broke the silence. “You’d have to be without Dad’s car for a while but I’m sure that you’d survive the separation.”
Dean’s eyes shot to his dad. John cleared his throat. “Atlantic City’s not far. Family road trip.”
“Atlantic City, huh.” Liz stared at him. “What’s wrong with Tahoe?”
“Pretentious. Security would probably be tight.” Dean stammered over the words but got them out.
“Is this about flying?”
“No… maybe.”
“You’re afraid to fly?” Sam blurted out.
“Hey, don’t make fun of your brother.” John bit out. “He doesn’t like to fly. He doesn’t have to.”
Sam stared at his father. Liz caught the look. She slid her hand around the base of Dean’s neck. Squeezing gently, she exchanged a look with John. “Well, it’s not like I can get through security anyway. Being wanted by the FBI does have its pitfalls.”
“Wait, wait. I thought Dean had fallen for a good girl but now you’re telling me that you’re in the FBI’s databank?” Sam slid forward to look his brother’s girlfriend in the eye.
“What? A girl can’t have a record?”
“With these two for parents, that boy is gonna be more slippery than an eel with the cops.” John pointed.
“Again with the boy talk, John.” Liz nudged his knee with her foot. She leaned against the railing to allow Dean to wrap his arms around her. “Why are you so sure that it’s a boy?”
“Just a feeling.”
“What’s gonna happen if it’s a girl?” She covered Dean’s hand on her stomach. “A boy would be lovely… to continue on the Winchester line and all… but really… I’m thinking a girl would help balance things out.”
“What’s your mother’s name?” John cleared his throat.
“Nancy.”
“Have you talked to her?”
“Not in years.” She shook her head. “Part of the deal when you’re on the run is that you don’t contact your known affiliates. I’m sure you already know that.”
John let it go at that. He leaned back and listened to the familiar banter of Sam and Dean laced with the laughter of Liz’s very great amusement. When Sam and Dean started one of their very physical bouts of brotherly love which usually involved one or the other’s face planted in the asphalt and the other’s knee in his back. John slipped away to the pay phone.
“Padre?”
“John… I haven’t heard from you in a long time. How have you been?”
“More or less okay.”
“Well, there’s a more honest answer than I was expecting.” Jim let out a breath. “How is Dean?”
“Good, he’s good. Sammy’s with us, too.”
“So, you found out about his fiancé.”
“I had to drag it out of him.”
“So, you called him and not the other way around. Maybe you’re doing better than you thought, John. I’m glad to hear it. I know you don’t hold for it but I’ve been praying for you.”
“Well, maybe it’s working. Praying extra hard for Dean?”
“Always. Sam prays, you’re pissed at God and Dean just doesn’t believe anything that he can’t touch.”
“Well, let me rest your soul at ease. Dean is very happy. The happiest that he’s been since…”
“Do tell, John. Don’t keep me in suspense.”
“Dean’s fallen in love.”
“Again?”
“For real this time.”
“Is she… a nice girl?”
“Yes, Jim. She’s a nice girl. Patient. Kind. Puts up with me. Threatened to kill me more than once. She’s getting along with Sam… They’re gonna have a baby and they’re talking about driving down to Atlantic City to tie the knot.”
“Absolutely not.”
“What?”
“Bring them here, John. I will marry them. I’ll even wait to process the paperwork until you’re all long gone.”
“Jim…”
“Bring your family here, John. Please.”
“Jim?”
“Don’t go to Atlantic City to get something so impersonal for your son’s wedding.”
“I’ll talk to them.”
--
Sam ran his hands over the shelf. “wow… Wow.”
“Your brother is quite the handyman.” Liz smiled proudly at Sam. She liked to brag on Dean to absolutely everyone that she felt underestimated him. “You should see the crib he made.”
“He already made a crib?”
“He’s very excited.” She bit her lip and let her eyes dart off to the kitchen where John was staring out the window, drinking. “Your dad is, too.”
“Well, it’s clear that you’ve impressed them both. Dad doesn’t really put up with women and certainly not the kind that Dean usually brings around… but you’re not like any of those girls.”
“Well, thank God for that.” Liz caught Sam’s uncomfortable look. “I’m quite aware of the type Dean used to go for.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you are so not what I would expect would settle Dean down. I mean… I think you’re great but… I also know my brother.”
“I… Uh… kind of stumbled into this town by accident.” Liz settled onto the couch. “Far as I can tell, the whole town is either born here or broken down here.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” He laughed at her wry smile.
“It’s a nice place. Good as any. I… ran long and hard after I signed my divorce papers. Spent a few nights in random towns, got drunk here and there. Hooked up with all manner of bad sorts. Kind of lived the opposite of my life to date… Then… I ended up here, broke and sick of life. I stopped in at the café for a cup of coffee to get warm. During the first week of cold snap, it gets busy in there. Travelers pull off and all that. They were pretty deep in the weeds, so I offered to pitch in. They were desperate and… well, I’ve been waitressing since I was 12 so… I got a room, kept showing up to work… and then I realized I’d been here about six months and I didn’t mind it too badly. I mean… It’s smaller than the town I grew up in… scattered as it is.” She shrugged.
“It’s pretty tucked away. Nothing bad ever happens here.”
“Right, so I stayed… I was… sort of climbing the walls when John and Dean stumbled in one morning, same as me. Looking for coffee and hot food. John and I sort of had a crash-collision sort of meeting.” She blushed. “Then Dean flirted up a storm and I was very close to taking a break in the back room just to… take the edge off when… John came up and apologized to me for our awkward meeting and begged me not to sleep with Dean. Something along the lines of it serving him right. Dean was being a little obnoxious so I played along.”
Sam smiled broadly. It was easy to forget the good bits between the bad bites of life with his family. At least someone else had seen the good bits and remembered his family for it. That was far more rare than gracious survivors after a hunt. “I’ll bet it did him a world of good. He’s used to getting what he wants pretty quickly.”
“Anyway, it took Dean all of a day to catch on to the fact that I was in league with his father and that I was actually interested. He got what he wanted pretty quickly after that. I don’t know… I… uh… recognized something in him. Pain, I later found out. He was… really not himself. I know this now. Not at that time, of course.” Liz watched Sam’s thoughtful face. “Dean loves his family. Any little perceived slight sends him into warrior mode and that is one of the things I love about him… and having met and tolerated your father, I see where he gets it.”
“I used to think that he didn’t really give a damn about us.” He didn’t meet her eyes so it was her tone that made him look up.
“Then all of you Winchesters are in each other’s blinders. It was the first thing I noticed about John. The way he watches Dean when he’s out of arm’s reach. The way he talks about his wife and you when he finally let himself say your name.” She took a deep breath. “I sort of pride myself in being a good judge of character. I don’t agree with the ways that your father has handled himself in the past, with me, but I understand it. The two of you are all that he’s got and he’ll go to hell before he’ll lose either one of you. Your safety is what he lives for.”
“Wow. Dad made a good impression on someone for once.”
“Oh, we’ve had our moments. I’ve threatened to kill him a couple of times already. He’s a stubborn man and I’ve about had my fill of stubborn men for one lifetime. We understand each other.”
“Oh? What is it that you and my dad understand about each other?”
“We’d both kill for Dean.”
TBC
John listened to Sam’s investigation findings. It was eerily similar to what he had found all those years ago when he had investigated Mary’s death. Then Sam had gone stiff and didn’t say anything for a long time. “Dad… I think that I could have stopped it but…”
“How?” John looked up from his notebook where he’d been making and comparing notes.
“I had these dreams for weeks before it happened. I just figured that… I was… you know afraid that marrying her would drag her into our life and I tried to put it out of my mind… and then it happened… exactly the way I dreamed it.”
“Dreams?”
“Nightmares. Visions. Whichever. It happened… and I’m afraid that it’s going to happen again.”
“Have you told your brother?”
“No… because he was in the last dream I had… which is why I answered the phone when you called.”
“That right?”
“But I didn’t actually expect him to be with someone and for that someone to be pregnant.” Sam turned to look out the window. “When did that happen, by the way?”
“Been in and out of this town for two years… nearly the whole time… those two…”
“And you let him?”
“He’s a grown man. He can make his own decisions.”
“You didn’t try to stop him?”
“Who says I didn’t?” John cleared his throat, met his son’s disbelieving eyes for a brief moment. “It didn’t take.”
“Wow. Dean stood up to you? I never saw that one coming.”
“Who said it was Dean?”
“She stood up to you?” Sam turned and laughed. “Wow… no wonder Dean likes her.”
“Be clear now. He loves her. Took him a while but now he’s standing his ground.” John managed a grin. “Liz once told me I was like one of those mama lions that lick their cubs to death.”
“She knows her wildlife?”
“Well, she’s not a bimbo. You’re going to have to redefine the way you look at your brother. He’s grown a lot since you’ve been gone.”
“Oh?”
“Liz has been good for your brother. I caused them both a lot of grief… so don’t give them any.” John heard the tone of his voice and expected Sam to burst out but the kid only nodded. “Good.” He cleared his throat. “So… this dream you had of Dean and Liz… when does it happen?”
“Sometime after the baby is born. We have some time but probably not enough.”
“It’ll have to be enough.”
--
John stared at the woods but didn’t dare go in. He’d promised Bobby… that future Bobby. Would staying away be enough to break the pattern? He was still sitting on the bench when the Chevelle pulled into the lot. It parked at the motel and it carried only one occupant. John knew his profile well. Knew who he was to Liz. Knew that he probably hadn’t told her that he was coming. Rising, he walked slowly but purposefully to the lot. The man pulled out a cell phone and started glancing around as he dialed.
“Can I help you, bud?” John cleared his throat.
“No, I’m fine. Thanks.” The younger man’s eyes narrowed at him. He lifted the phone to his ear. “Liz, it’s me. We need to talk… I’m in the parking lot.” John waited but didn’t say a word. He knew Liz was thinking about coming down but hadn’t made up her mind yet. Finally the young man turned to face him. “Thanks, but I’m waiting for someone.”
“She’ll come down if she wants to.” John crossed the lot to the little store. Liz was standing on the landing but unsure of climbing down. “Want me to tell him to take off?”
“No… I got it. I should probably tell him about this anyway.” She rubbed her belly. She slowly stepped into the lot. John sat on the staircase to keep watch. A few minutes later, he felt a body sit a few steps behind him.
Liz kept her distance and talked softly. When they had caught up to the point where she was pregnant, the man’s face had gone white. There were some heated words in soft tones. Sam cleared his throat. “Who is that guy? Dean’s stalking the apartment like a caged lion.”
“That would be her ex-husband.” John barely managed to contain the shaking of his head on that statement.
“He come up often?”
“No, been about a year and a half since he was last up here. Upset her something terrible.”
Sam let a thoughtful pause hang for a moment while he weighed the pros and cons of this past relationship interfering with his brother’s life. “Is it gonna happen again?”
“No. She’s got what she wants now. He’s got nothing left to offer her.”
“Really, what’s that?”
“She’s got a man to love and a child on the way that will make it to the light of day…”
“What?”
“She had three miscarriages while she was with him. It soured their marriage. Six months after she moved up here, she met Dean… they’ve been together ever since. I don’t think she told him about Dean the last time he was here.”
“No! I told you! I told you!” Liz shouted, shoving Max away. “If we ended it, it was for good. No going back!”
“Liz! I love you and I know you still love me.”
“It’s not enough!” She screamed and backed away, her arms twitching. “I told you that it wasn’t enough and you said you understood. I told you that I couldn’t do it again and I was telling the truth.”
“But you can have a baby with a man you hardly know?”
“Hardly know? At least HE’S never been afraid to love me, Max. For once, I have all of a man and not just the parts he wants to show me.”
“Well, that’s a sword that goes both ways, now isn’t it.”
“How was I supposed to trust you? Huh?” Liz ran her hands through her hair. “You can’t do this to me. You can’t just… show up and expect that I’m going to be here for you. In love with you… it’s been nearly 3 years, Max. I’ve moved on. I’ve carved out a life for myself. I’m starting my own family.”
“Do they know about you?” He eyed her carefully.
“They know enough to respect what I can’t tell them.” She lied.
“Which one is he?”
“At the top of the stairs.”
“I need to talk to you.” Max started toward the staircase. John glanced back to find Dean leaning on the railing. “Now.”
“No!” She tugged on his arm to make him face her. “You don’t get to do this. I don’t need your permission. We stopped playing that game when Isabel died!”
“Don’t you say her name.” Max growled.
“Don’t threaten my family.” She shoved him and sparks flew between her hands and his stumbling body.
Max gasped as the pain shot through his body. “Liz… what?”
“Don’t threaten them.” She repeated, tears in her eyes. She looked up when a thud sounded in front of her. “Jesus, Dean! Are you crazy?”
John and Sam blinked when they realized that Dean had just leapt from the top of the staircase to the ground. Dean nudged her toward the stairwell. “Go calm down. Max and I are going to have a conversation.”
Looking over her shoulder, Liz stumbled to sit between John’s legs. He anchored her with hands on her shoulders. “What’s going to happen? Some macho fight?”
“Sometimes there are conversations that need to happen between two men regarding a lady in common.” John reassured her.
“Yeah, like what?”
“Like the time that Mary’s uncle sat me down to discuss how important she was to him because she was the only family he had left aside from a few distant cousins. I was instructed that I was to do everything in my power to see that she had the kind of life she had always wanted.”
“I didn’t know she had an uncle.” Sam interrupted.
“He died when you were a baby.”
“When?”
“A few months after your mother did.” John hated to remember that old man but he was one of the few reasons that John had started down this path in his life.
“Why don’t you talk about her to your boys, John?” Liz jabbed a finger into his knee. “It’s painful but they only have what you remember and… you’re not going to be around forever.”
“Careful, you’re approaching Earth logic.” Sam warned half-heartedly.
“Mary was my life. I did everything for her. She was… a light at the end of the tunnel after Vietnam. Losing her cost me more than I’ll ever know.” John admitted. “How do you lose your life and keep living?”
“What about your kids?” Sam demanded.
“Probably was the only reason I ever came home alive from any hunt, Sam.” He took a long shaky breath. “I love you boys but Mary was my world. The world I see without her is filled with monsters and demons and credit card fraud and watching how I destroyed my sons without even trying.”
“John.” Liz turned to face him. “What did she do that would piss you off?”
He laughed suddenly. “God, she used to steal my socks to dust with and then throw them away. She always slathered mayo on my BLT even though I always told her that I preferred mustard. Every single time that we fought, she always brought up that I looked at other ladies a half a second too long and that would start a whole other fight.”
“Bet the makeup sex was wild.” Liz laughed. Sam gagged.
“You would know about that, wouldn’t you.”
“What?” Liz blinked at him.
“Like you don’t pick fights with Dean.”
She turned away to hide her grin. “Well, he is an aggravating man.”
“And leaves himself wide open for ridicule.”
“On occasion.” She flicked his knee. “Wonder where he gets that trait from.”
“Are you saying I’m open for mockery?”
“Well, I might mock you openly if I didn’t feel Colonel Marine Badass would beat me down.”
“I would never hit a woman.”
“You hit plenty of women.” Sam muttered.
“Those were evil women.” John justified.
“Of course, they were evil. If they did something to deserve a smack down by Mr. John Winchester, they had to be evil. A gentleman only hits a woman if she’s planning evil world domination.” Liz teased.
“Which is different than good world domination?” Sam countered.
“Well, of course. If a hot woman decides she’s going to dominate the world with sunshine and rainbows, John Winchester lays his jacket over the puddle in her way. If it’s for killing puppies and murdering virgins, John Winchester shoves her down and drowns her in the puddle.”
“Alright, enough, kids.” John tugged her back against him, then reached back and thumped Sam on the chest.
“You know, I heard Superman… wears Batman underoos.” Sam leaned back and away from his father’s reach. It was a joke he and Dean had shared and made in the few good moments they’d had after Sam had been let in on the family secret. It was a test of sorts for the newest member of the family.
“Oh, yeah?” Liz rose to stand over the two of them. “I heard Batman wears John Winchester underoos.”
“Don’t be stupid. Batman wears Dean Winchester underoos.” Dean cut in.
“And we all know.” Sam started, then Liz joined in. “That Dean Winchester doesn’t wear underoos.”
“You go commando one time.”
“You did it, in Oklahoma, after running through the bushes after deflowering the sheriff’s daughter, which I had expressly told you not to do.” John thumped him on the forehead. “Then got caught on camera by a news crew investigating prowlers two seconds after tripping over your own shoes… Johnson waving in the air for the world to see.”
“He’s the pride and joy of the family, you know.” Sam addressed Liz. “You picked a winner.”
“So… did you kill him?” Liz reached over the railing to grip Dean by the shirt.
“Nah…” he ran his hands through her hair. “We had a talk, man to man, and we came to an understanding. He’ll wait for you to call him no matter how long it takes.”
“I can still kill him though, right?” John cleared his throat. “For… checking out your ass when you’re clearly off the market.”
“Down, Papa.” Liz tapped her finger against his nose.
“So… how’s about a road trip? I’m thinking Vegas.” Dean looked to his father and brother, who nodded their assent.
“No. I don’t do Vegas.” Liz shook her head.
“Lake Tahoe?”
“Maybe.”
John blinked rapidly to wrap his head around the idea. His son had just half-assed a marriage proposal. His son. He was very close to being ashamed except that Liz was in step with him… and this event had never happened in the future that he was used to visiting.
“Only if we can fly.”
Dean froze. Sam raised an eyebrow. John leaned back and waited for Dean to unfreeze. Sam broke the silence. “You’d have to be without Dad’s car for a while but I’m sure that you’d survive the separation.”
Dean’s eyes shot to his dad. John cleared his throat. “Atlantic City’s not far. Family road trip.”
“Atlantic City, huh.” Liz stared at him. “What’s wrong with Tahoe?”
“Pretentious. Security would probably be tight.” Dean stammered over the words but got them out.
“Is this about flying?”
“No… maybe.”
“You’re afraid to fly?” Sam blurted out.
“Hey, don’t make fun of your brother.” John bit out. “He doesn’t like to fly. He doesn’t have to.”
Sam stared at his father. Liz caught the look. She slid her hand around the base of Dean’s neck. Squeezing gently, she exchanged a look with John. “Well, it’s not like I can get through security anyway. Being wanted by the FBI does have its pitfalls.”
“Wait, wait. I thought Dean had fallen for a good girl but now you’re telling me that you’re in the FBI’s databank?” Sam slid forward to look his brother’s girlfriend in the eye.
“What? A girl can’t have a record?”
“With these two for parents, that boy is gonna be more slippery than an eel with the cops.” John pointed.
“Again with the boy talk, John.” Liz nudged his knee with her foot. She leaned against the railing to allow Dean to wrap his arms around her. “Why are you so sure that it’s a boy?”
“Just a feeling.”
“What’s gonna happen if it’s a girl?” She covered Dean’s hand on her stomach. “A boy would be lovely… to continue on the Winchester line and all… but really… I’m thinking a girl would help balance things out.”
“What’s your mother’s name?” John cleared his throat.
“Nancy.”
“Have you talked to her?”
“Not in years.” She shook her head. “Part of the deal when you’re on the run is that you don’t contact your known affiliates. I’m sure you already know that.”
John let it go at that. He leaned back and listened to the familiar banter of Sam and Dean laced with the laughter of Liz’s very great amusement. When Sam and Dean started one of their very physical bouts of brotherly love which usually involved one or the other’s face planted in the asphalt and the other’s knee in his back. John slipped away to the pay phone.
“Padre?”
“John… I haven’t heard from you in a long time. How have you been?”
“More or less okay.”
“Well, there’s a more honest answer than I was expecting.” Jim let out a breath. “How is Dean?”
“Good, he’s good. Sammy’s with us, too.”
“So, you found out about his fiancé.”
“I had to drag it out of him.”
“So, you called him and not the other way around. Maybe you’re doing better than you thought, John. I’m glad to hear it. I know you don’t hold for it but I’ve been praying for you.”
“Well, maybe it’s working. Praying extra hard for Dean?”
“Always. Sam prays, you’re pissed at God and Dean just doesn’t believe anything that he can’t touch.”
“Well, let me rest your soul at ease. Dean is very happy. The happiest that he’s been since…”
“Do tell, John. Don’t keep me in suspense.”
“Dean’s fallen in love.”
“Again?”
“For real this time.”
“Is she… a nice girl?”
“Yes, Jim. She’s a nice girl. Patient. Kind. Puts up with me. Threatened to kill me more than once. She’s getting along with Sam… They’re gonna have a baby and they’re talking about driving down to Atlantic City to tie the knot.”
“Absolutely not.”
“What?”
“Bring them here, John. I will marry them. I’ll even wait to process the paperwork until you’re all long gone.”
“Jim…”
“Bring your family here, John. Please.”
“Jim?”
“Don’t go to Atlantic City to get something so impersonal for your son’s wedding.”
“I’ll talk to them.”
--
Sam ran his hands over the shelf. “wow… Wow.”
“Your brother is quite the handyman.” Liz smiled proudly at Sam. She liked to brag on Dean to absolutely everyone that she felt underestimated him. “You should see the crib he made.”
“He already made a crib?”
“He’s very excited.” She bit her lip and let her eyes dart off to the kitchen where John was staring out the window, drinking. “Your dad is, too.”
“Well, it’s clear that you’ve impressed them both. Dad doesn’t really put up with women and certainly not the kind that Dean usually brings around… but you’re not like any of those girls.”
“Well, thank God for that.” Liz caught Sam’s uncomfortable look. “I’m quite aware of the type Dean used to go for.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you are so not what I would expect would settle Dean down. I mean… I think you’re great but… I also know my brother.”
“I… Uh… kind of stumbled into this town by accident.” Liz settled onto the couch. “Far as I can tell, the whole town is either born here or broken down here.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” He laughed at her wry smile.
“It’s a nice place. Good as any. I… ran long and hard after I signed my divorce papers. Spent a few nights in random towns, got drunk here and there. Hooked up with all manner of bad sorts. Kind of lived the opposite of my life to date… Then… I ended up here, broke and sick of life. I stopped in at the café for a cup of coffee to get warm. During the first week of cold snap, it gets busy in there. Travelers pull off and all that. They were pretty deep in the weeds, so I offered to pitch in. They were desperate and… well, I’ve been waitressing since I was 12 so… I got a room, kept showing up to work… and then I realized I’d been here about six months and I didn’t mind it too badly. I mean… It’s smaller than the town I grew up in… scattered as it is.” She shrugged.
“It’s pretty tucked away. Nothing bad ever happens here.”
“Right, so I stayed… I was… sort of climbing the walls when John and Dean stumbled in one morning, same as me. Looking for coffee and hot food. John and I sort of had a crash-collision sort of meeting.” She blushed. “Then Dean flirted up a storm and I was very close to taking a break in the back room just to… take the edge off when… John came up and apologized to me for our awkward meeting and begged me not to sleep with Dean. Something along the lines of it serving him right. Dean was being a little obnoxious so I played along.”
Sam smiled broadly. It was easy to forget the good bits between the bad bites of life with his family. At least someone else had seen the good bits and remembered his family for it. That was far more rare than gracious survivors after a hunt. “I’ll bet it did him a world of good. He’s used to getting what he wants pretty quickly.”
“Anyway, it took Dean all of a day to catch on to the fact that I was in league with his father and that I was actually interested. He got what he wanted pretty quickly after that. I don’t know… I… uh… recognized something in him. Pain, I later found out. He was… really not himself. I know this now. Not at that time, of course.” Liz watched Sam’s thoughtful face. “Dean loves his family. Any little perceived slight sends him into warrior mode and that is one of the things I love about him… and having met and tolerated your father, I see where he gets it.”
“I used to think that he didn’t really give a damn about us.” He didn’t meet her eyes so it was her tone that made him look up.
“Then all of you Winchesters are in each other’s blinders. It was the first thing I noticed about John. The way he watches Dean when he’s out of arm’s reach. The way he talks about his wife and you when he finally let himself say your name.” She took a deep breath. “I sort of pride myself in being a good judge of character. I don’t agree with the ways that your father has handled himself in the past, with me, but I understand it. The two of you are all that he’s got and he’ll go to hell before he’ll lose either one of you. Your safety is what he lives for.”
“Wow. Dad made a good impression on someone for once.”
“Oh, we’ve had our moments. I’ve threatened to kill him a couple of times already. He’s a stubborn man and I’ve about had my fill of stubborn men for one lifetime. We understand each other.”
“Oh? What is it that you and my dad understand about each other?”
“We’d both kill for Dean.”
TBC
Re: Time Has Come Today (SPN/ROS, UC, AU, MA) Part 23 10/23
Part 23
John gripped the sink. His brain pounded inside his skull. He could feel it coming. An invasion into his waking hours. It happened so much faster than the last time.
Liz stared up at him, a sly smile on her face. “You trying to tell me something, John?”
“Just… look out. There are dangerous things out there… besides demons. Men can be evil all on their own.”
“You do know that I have children, right?”
“Obviously. What’s your point?”
“That I’m not a virgin. I do know about the evil ways of men and their libidos.”
John set his jaw and turned away, glaring at the jerk who had been leering at Liz all night over his cup of coffee. “Just be careful.”
“I’m always careful.” She touched his arm to turn him again. “John, I’ve been waiting tables since I was 12. I know a thing or two about handling myself with lonely men and over amorous customers.”
John turned and sank back into his seat near the back entrance to the kitchen. He sipped his coffee and picked at his pie. He watched the jerk while Liz refreshed his coffee. She smiled politely then returned to the kitchen to pick up an order.
“So, saw your bulldog in full force.” A voice drifted to John’s ears.
“He’s just overprotective.” Liz laughed.
“Right… more like jealous.”
“Shut up.”
“I call ‘em like I see ‘em.” There was a pause. “He’s your father-in-law.”
“Dean and I were never married.”
“Same difference.”
“John’s a good man. The kids and I are all he’s got left. I’ll take care of him.”
“You know that’s not what I’m talking about. I’ve seen the way you look at him.”
“Do me a favor, Eileen. Mind your own business.”
“Liz.”
“I’m not the one sleeping with a married man.”
John coughed as he splashed water on his face. He blinked until he couldn’t see the diner anymore. Until all he saw was his soaked reflection in the motel room mirror. His face was a dark red, almost purple.
“Dad?” Sam’s voice boomed into the room. Sam raced over and helped his father to sit on the bed. “You okay? What happened?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing.” John whispered even as he blacked out.
--
“Baby’s asleep.” John whispered from where he leaned in the doorway.
“Thanks, John.” Liz whispered back from where she was laying Jack’s head against the pillows.
“I guess pre-school was too much for him, huh?” John chuckled as Liz covered the boy up.
“Just a little.” Liz kissed his forehead and followed John out to the kitchen where she poured them each a drink. “What did you do all day?”
“Well, we woke up. Deanna had some milk, some bananas. Then we had our baths because Deanna likes to wear her bananas.” John smiled at Liz’s laugh. “Then we had ourselves a little nap and then it was time to jump on the bed for Olympic training.”
“She is a tumbler.” She reached over to pour him another drink. She didn’t even flinch when he brushed her hair back behind her ear. He flinched when she leaned into his hand. He didn’t step back. Didn’t flinch when their hands touched over his glass. “John…”
“Liz…”
--
John’s eyes snapped open. Sam loomed overhead, a voice sounded from the other side of the room. “John?” Liz’s face appeared. “I’m right here.” John moved instinctively, away from her. “John?”
Sam shot Dean a look. “He was talking to himself when I walked in… and he was… He passed out and almost the minute I got him on the bed, he started talking in his sleep.”
“Just like at Bobby’s.” Liz turned to face them.
“Yeah.” Dean moved around to the other side of the bed. “Dad. You okay? Dizzy?”
“Yeah. Little bit.” John admitted.
“Maybe we ought to stay put.” Dean looked to Liz. “Pastor Jim will still be there later.”
“Yeah, sure.” She nodded.
“No.” John sat up and his world spun. “No… we’ll still go to see Jim.”
“Not until you aren’t in danger of stroking out on us.” Dean shook his head.
“This is what it wants. We have to go to Minnesota.”
--
Dean paced his kitchen. Liz and Sam watched him. “Something has Dad running scared.”
“Are you sure?” Sam cleared his throat.
“This has been going on a while. Something is happening. He takes off for weeks at a time. He hasn’t budged in a while. He’s been hiding out here.”
“I don’t know, Dean… I think… it’s been getting worse.” Liz chimed in.
“You think?”
“He’s done this before. At Bobby’s… after his surgery.” She rose to her feet. “He knows what’s going on… well, more than we do. He’s not talking and he’s got a plan that we know nothing about.”
Sam and Dean exchanged a look and laughed. She cocked an eyebrow at them. Sam fought a smile. “Well, with Dad… that part is always a given.”
“So, what are we going to do?”
“He’s panicking.” Dean mulled it over. “There’s something he knows and he seems to think that getting us hitched is key to his plan.”
“Okay. I hear that but… I don’t understand it.” Sam shook his head and got to his feet. “The two of you getting married isn’t exactly… you know… scale balancing event or anything.”
“I… um… have a question for the two of you.” Liz wrung her fingers and paced the length of the kitchen. “Do you think it’s possible that your dad is like… psychic or something?”
“No.”
“It’s just that… um… the last couple of years… the hunts that he’s picked and the tales of how the hunts went down and then some of the things that he knows about me… there’s… not been a lot of… evidence for how he came across the knowledge.” Liz met Dean’s eyes. “I never came out and told him about me and I’ve seen his journal and the way he does a hunt and most of the hunts he’s done since… well, it’s different, right?”
“Yeah, I hear you.” Dean agreed. “He’s not pouring over the newspapers the way he used to. You remember? The early morning run to the newsstand. The seven dozen papers he’d get and skim through every day?” Sam nodded that he did remember. “He’ll be gone for a week or two, then come back with notes in his journal and that’s it. We’d hit the road and he’d… anticipate on a level that is downright… Like a little while ago… we were hunting this Rawhead. Usually he does the research and the stakeouts and sometimes more kids go missing. He pretty much pulled in, listened to the scanner, and then we walked one neighborhood. Just one, found the kids, had two tazers a piece, just in case, and the whole thing was over in a day and a half. Dad’s efficient, sure but…”
“Yeah, I hear what you’re saying but Dad? Psychic?” Sam groaned. “I don’t think so.”
“Maybe he’s been sleeping with a psychic. Getting his details from his lady Friday.”
“Dad?” Sam snorted. “No, something else is going on but… I don’t know what.”
“Tell him, Dean.” Liz put her hand on his shoulder.
“Tell me what?”
“A while back… when Dad had his last surgery… he was pretty out of it and one day he’s talking to Liz about me like I’m dead. This was before the Rawhead, before we went to check up on you… Sam… when I found out what happened to your girlfriend… he wasn’t all that surprised. He was… sad, you know but not surprised.”
“How did he find out about that?”
“I don’t know. I only found out when he called you… He told you that a friend told him but… right now… I think Pastor Jim is the only person still talking to him.”
“I didn’t tell anyone but Pastor Jim.” Sam cleared his throat. “He said that he hadn’t talked to Dad in over a year. Think he called Dad?”
“No. You know how Dad feels about Pastor Jim… imposing.”
“Even if Pastor Jim told John… it doesn’t explain how he knew about me.” Liz cut in. “He doesn’t know anyone I know. No one I know has ever met him before the other day.”
“Liz…” Dean wrapped his arms around her, to pull her close.
Sam tilted his head at them and waited but they just exchanged meaningful looks. “Like what?”
“Well, once, Dad and I were talking women and I mentioned something about… and mind you, this was last year before…” He pointed to Liz’s belly. “I mean, it wasn’t even something that we were discussing… We were just talking and Dad starts talking about how you treat a woman who has experienced loss. So, this is something that I knew about Liz and not something I ever talked about with Dad. I talked to Bobby about it but Bobby keeps his mouth shut when I talk.”
“You’ve never told Dad that Liz had three miscarriages.” It wasn’t a question, just looking for affirmation.
“No… how did you know?” Liz blinked at Sam. That was extremely personal and Liz could count on one hand how many people knew about that… and John wasn’t one of them.
“Because he told me… the other day when your ex was here.”
“God, how did he know that?” Liz took a breath. “I’m just concerned about him.”
“Maybe he is.” Sam whispered. “I… I’ve been seeing things… in my dreams… that have been coming true.”
“What?” Dean blinked at his brother. “So, what? I’m surrounded by psychics now?”
“Wait, what?” Sam blinked.
--
Dean turned down the radio and groaned. “This car was not meant for four people.”
“It’s a four-door. These days, it’s considered a sedan.” Sam offered.
“Bite your tongue.” Dean reached over and whacked him.
“It’s fine.” Liz winced as she adjusted her posture.
“Come ‘ere.” John turned his body so that he could stretch his leg out, then bent and lifted her legs over his. “Better?”
“Yes, thanks.” She adjusted her pillow beneath her back.
“Sam, get my tapes.” Dean glanced around.
“They’re back here.” John reached down and hauled up the box. He rifled through and tossed a cassette up front.
“I can’t believe you’d torture your future bride with the mullet rock from that box.” Sam groaned as he picked up the tape and looked it over. “In Through the Out Door? Dad? Come on. This album is now torture.”
“Just play it, Sam.” Liz grinned at John, who wore a wistful expression on his face.
“In Through the Out Door is tradition.” Dean snatched the tape from his brother’s fingers and shoved it into the player.
“Tradition. Right. Like hunting. Like salting doors. Like sigils on windows… oh wait, those are all useful.”
“It’s a tradition we’re passing on.” Liz ran her hands over her stomach.
“Okay… just to clear this up. In Through the Out Door is the most played album this vehicle has ever seen. It’s not tradition, it’s tedium.” Sam turned in his seat and then took in the expressions in the backseat. “What? What am I missing?”
“This tradition hits you a little young, Sammy. I don’t expect you to understand it but I would appreciate it if you would respect it.” John tapped Liz’s leg to emphasize himself to his youngest son.
Sam nodded to his father. “How young?”
“A year or so.” Liz answered for him.
“We’ve been listening to this tape that long?” Dean turned slightly so he could see someone in the backseat.
“You’ve been listening to this album since you were born, Dean.” John reassured him. “Probably the first song you ever heard in this world was Zeppelin.”
“Awesome.” Dean nodded and grinned. “Which song?”
“Tell him.” Liz nudged John.
“Hey, hey. How does the newcomer know the family history and we don’t?” Dean frowned.
“Well, the newcomer knows how to shut up and listen from time to time.” John reached up and flicked the back of Dean’s head. “All My Love.”
“Seriously?” Dean frowned. “But that’s on the B-side.”
“What can I say? Your mom really liked that song.”
“Mom?” Sam whispered.
“She was a complicated lady with complicated taste in music. Hated Zeppelin but she loved that song.”
“She used to sing it to me.” Dean breathed out. “She… had a pretty voice…”
“Yeah, she did.”
“Hate to tell you guys this,” she cleared her throat to cut in, “I’ll hum the song to the baby but I can’t carry a tune.”
“Dean’ll sing it.” Sam told her. “He sings that freakin’ song all the time. Least now I know why.”
“You want to tell them, Dean?” Liz bit her lip.
Dean grinned and cleared his throat. “So, uh… Liz went and got one of those ultrasound things… We’re having a girl.”
John froze. “You’re sure?”
“Yep.” Liz grinned. “So, your strong feeling was a little off, there, Grandpa.”
“So… with everyone’s permission…” Dean led and took a deep breath. “We want to name her after Mom.”
Sam nodded his assent. Liz looked to John who was frowning. “John?”
“Yeah.” He nodded, his voice thick. “You’re sure it’s a girl?”
“Yeah, we asked a couple of times.” She offered a smile. “Because you were so insistent on it being a boy.”
“When’s your due date?”
“Fall.”
The birthday was all wrong and it was just clicking. There was more off than just that. John should have known better. There was something really wrong with that wood. He had known it and ignored it. He had to stay far, far away from that wood.
“Well?” Liz nudged his knee. “John?”
“Yeah, yeah. It’s fine by me.”
“You okay, John?”
“Fine. Little carsick. Never much liked riding in the backseat.”
“You did it for months when your leg was in the brace.” Dean frowned into the rearview mirror.
“I also had prescription grade painkillers for company.”
--
John drove with Sam by his side. Dean and Liz asleep in the backseat. Sam cleared his throat. “Hey Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“The three of us were talking… comparing notes and those two seem to think that you might be psychic.”
John frowned to himself. “Really?”
“Yeah… so… I’m just wondering if what’s happening to me is… genetic.”
“I’m not psychic, Sam.” John cursed under his breath. “I don’t really know what’s going on.”
“But you know that Dean has to marry Liz.”
“They should get married.”
“You’re pretty insistent on it.”
“I want the best for my boys, Sam. If I thought that this was passing or that it would fall apart, I wouldn’t care but Dean loves Liz and he needs all the normal that he can get.”
“Yeah, cause partly-alien pregnant girlfriends are normal.”
“Yeah, well. He is Dean.”
“Yeah, that he is.” Sam pondered his next words as he checked the backseat to make sure they were still sleeping. “Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“They said you’ve been seeing someone.”
“Not exactly.”
“It’s good. That you are, though.”
“I’m not.”
“Dad…”
“I’m not.” John itched for the drive in silence. Itched for the feel of skin against his. Clearing his throat, he cast his son a glance. “I’ve got my… hang ups but there’s not a woman who can really hold my interest for very long.”
“It would be okay if you did… find a woman to hold your interest. I…” Sam’s throat went dry for a moment. “I think I know how you felt about Mom. It’s been a long time since she died and maybe it’s not a bad thing if you can move on. I know that hunting the demon is going to be the last thing you do but maybe… maybe having something like that again would… anchor you.”
“Maybe.”
“My point is… we’ve had our disagreements and we’ll probably never see eye to eye on them… but I don’t want anything to happen to you.” Sam made himself not flinch when his father laid his hand on his shoulder. “Dad?”
“I hear you, Sammy. I’m trying.”
“Since you’re hearing so well, these days. Think you could call me Sam, now?”
“Nope.” John gave his son a smile. “I didn’t hear that.”
--
John’s head swam. He greeted his old friend amiably enough. Watched Dean introduce Liz in a proper manner… more proper than the way he’d introduced her to Bobby. Sam and Jim went for a long walk after dinner. Dean and Liz took a tour of the church… and John’s head swam. The pull was strong. As if the wood were just outside Blue Earth instead of several states away. A sleepless night had John barely able to stand while everyone moved around getting ready. He shut his eyes for a second as he leaned on a wall but it was too late to fight it off.
John stared through the glass. A doctor glanced his way. “Is there someone you’re here to see?”
“My grandson.”
“Oh?”
“My first born’s first born.”
“He’s handsome.” She winked at him.
“Should be. His old man is quite the lady’s man.” He cleared his throat. “His mom’s a looker, too.”
“Come on in, Grandpa. Hold him.”
“Dad!” Sam’s voice brought John out of the false memory. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” John tried to stand upright but his knee buckled, Sam caught him and guided him to a chair. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. Something is going on with you.”
“I got a funny feeling, Sam.” John admitted. Jim and Dean were talking as Jim adjusted Dean’s tie in the kitchen. “I can’t explain it but I need you to do something for me.”
“Yeah, Dad. Anything.”
“No matter what happens today, Dean and Liz get married.”
“Dad?”
“No matter what happens to me, they finish their vows.”
“Yeah. Sure, Dad.”
--
John’s hands shook as he stepped inside the church. That small action seemed to increase his vertigo. Whatever he had got himself into, it was big. Jim was busy arranging his book on the stand and instructing the boys on where to stand. He could feel sweat breaking out on his brow. He offered Liz a tight smile when she entered, smoothing her dress over her expanding middle. He took her hand and guided her down the aisle to Dean, who wore a smirk on his face, not a bit nervous. As Jim began to speak, John felt his face flush and he fought to keep his focus on the words.
Sam watched his father stumble to the nearest pew and did his best not to call attention to it until after the rings were passed and the kisses exchanged. Then he rushed over and watched his father’s face turn purple. “Dad. Dad. Breathe.”
“Dad?”
“John?”
The voices came from all around but John’s vision had gone black. Nothing in sight. Then he was met with oblivion.
TBC
John gripped the sink. His brain pounded inside his skull. He could feel it coming. An invasion into his waking hours. It happened so much faster than the last time.
Liz stared up at him, a sly smile on her face. “You trying to tell me something, John?”
“Just… look out. There are dangerous things out there… besides demons. Men can be evil all on their own.”
“You do know that I have children, right?”
“Obviously. What’s your point?”
“That I’m not a virgin. I do know about the evil ways of men and their libidos.”
John set his jaw and turned away, glaring at the jerk who had been leering at Liz all night over his cup of coffee. “Just be careful.”
“I’m always careful.” She touched his arm to turn him again. “John, I’ve been waiting tables since I was 12. I know a thing or two about handling myself with lonely men and over amorous customers.”
John turned and sank back into his seat near the back entrance to the kitchen. He sipped his coffee and picked at his pie. He watched the jerk while Liz refreshed his coffee. She smiled politely then returned to the kitchen to pick up an order.
“So, saw your bulldog in full force.” A voice drifted to John’s ears.
“He’s just overprotective.” Liz laughed.
“Right… more like jealous.”
“Shut up.”
“I call ‘em like I see ‘em.” There was a pause. “He’s your father-in-law.”
“Dean and I were never married.”
“Same difference.”
“John’s a good man. The kids and I are all he’s got left. I’ll take care of him.”
“You know that’s not what I’m talking about. I’ve seen the way you look at him.”
“Do me a favor, Eileen. Mind your own business.”
“Liz.”
“I’m not the one sleeping with a married man.”
John coughed as he splashed water on his face. He blinked until he couldn’t see the diner anymore. Until all he saw was his soaked reflection in the motel room mirror. His face was a dark red, almost purple.
“Dad?” Sam’s voice boomed into the room. Sam raced over and helped his father to sit on the bed. “You okay? What happened?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing.” John whispered even as he blacked out.
--
“Baby’s asleep.” John whispered from where he leaned in the doorway.
“Thanks, John.” Liz whispered back from where she was laying Jack’s head against the pillows.
“I guess pre-school was too much for him, huh?” John chuckled as Liz covered the boy up.
“Just a little.” Liz kissed his forehead and followed John out to the kitchen where she poured them each a drink. “What did you do all day?”
“Well, we woke up. Deanna had some milk, some bananas. Then we had our baths because Deanna likes to wear her bananas.” John smiled at Liz’s laugh. “Then we had ourselves a little nap and then it was time to jump on the bed for Olympic training.”
“She is a tumbler.” She reached over to pour him another drink. She didn’t even flinch when he brushed her hair back behind her ear. He flinched when she leaned into his hand. He didn’t step back. Didn’t flinch when their hands touched over his glass. “John…”
“Liz…”
--
John’s eyes snapped open. Sam loomed overhead, a voice sounded from the other side of the room. “John?” Liz’s face appeared. “I’m right here.” John moved instinctively, away from her. “John?”
Sam shot Dean a look. “He was talking to himself when I walked in… and he was… He passed out and almost the minute I got him on the bed, he started talking in his sleep.”
“Just like at Bobby’s.” Liz turned to face them.
“Yeah.” Dean moved around to the other side of the bed. “Dad. You okay? Dizzy?”
“Yeah. Little bit.” John admitted.
“Maybe we ought to stay put.” Dean looked to Liz. “Pastor Jim will still be there later.”
“Yeah, sure.” She nodded.
“No.” John sat up and his world spun. “No… we’ll still go to see Jim.”
“Not until you aren’t in danger of stroking out on us.” Dean shook his head.
“This is what it wants. We have to go to Minnesota.”
--
Dean paced his kitchen. Liz and Sam watched him. “Something has Dad running scared.”
“Are you sure?” Sam cleared his throat.
“This has been going on a while. Something is happening. He takes off for weeks at a time. He hasn’t budged in a while. He’s been hiding out here.”
“I don’t know, Dean… I think… it’s been getting worse.” Liz chimed in.
“You think?”
“He’s done this before. At Bobby’s… after his surgery.” She rose to her feet. “He knows what’s going on… well, more than we do. He’s not talking and he’s got a plan that we know nothing about.”
Sam and Dean exchanged a look and laughed. She cocked an eyebrow at them. Sam fought a smile. “Well, with Dad… that part is always a given.”
“So, what are we going to do?”
“He’s panicking.” Dean mulled it over. “There’s something he knows and he seems to think that getting us hitched is key to his plan.”
“Okay. I hear that but… I don’t understand it.” Sam shook his head and got to his feet. “The two of you getting married isn’t exactly… you know… scale balancing event or anything.”
“I… um… have a question for the two of you.” Liz wrung her fingers and paced the length of the kitchen. “Do you think it’s possible that your dad is like… psychic or something?”
“No.”
“It’s just that… um… the last couple of years… the hunts that he’s picked and the tales of how the hunts went down and then some of the things that he knows about me… there’s… not been a lot of… evidence for how he came across the knowledge.” Liz met Dean’s eyes. “I never came out and told him about me and I’ve seen his journal and the way he does a hunt and most of the hunts he’s done since… well, it’s different, right?”
“Yeah, I hear you.” Dean agreed. “He’s not pouring over the newspapers the way he used to. You remember? The early morning run to the newsstand. The seven dozen papers he’d get and skim through every day?” Sam nodded that he did remember. “He’ll be gone for a week or two, then come back with notes in his journal and that’s it. We’d hit the road and he’d… anticipate on a level that is downright… Like a little while ago… we were hunting this Rawhead. Usually he does the research and the stakeouts and sometimes more kids go missing. He pretty much pulled in, listened to the scanner, and then we walked one neighborhood. Just one, found the kids, had two tazers a piece, just in case, and the whole thing was over in a day and a half. Dad’s efficient, sure but…”
“Yeah, I hear what you’re saying but Dad? Psychic?” Sam groaned. “I don’t think so.”
“Maybe he’s been sleeping with a psychic. Getting his details from his lady Friday.”
“Dad?” Sam snorted. “No, something else is going on but… I don’t know what.”
“Tell him, Dean.” Liz put her hand on his shoulder.
“Tell me what?”
“A while back… when Dad had his last surgery… he was pretty out of it and one day he’s talking to Liz about me like I’m dead. This was before the Rawhead, before we went to check up on you… Sam… when I found out what happened to your girlfriend… he wasn’t all that surprised. He was… sad, you know but not surprised.”
“How did he find out about that?”
“I don’t know. I only found out when he called you… He told you that a friend told him but… right now… I think Pastor Jim is the only person still talking to him.”
“I didn’t tell anyone but Pastor Jim.” Sam cleared his throat. “He said that he hadn’t talked to Dad in over a year. Think he called Dad?”
“No. You know how Dad feels about Pastor Jim… imposing.”
“Even if Pastor Jim told John… it doesn’t explain how he knew about me.” Liz cut in. “He doesn’t know anyone I know. No one I know has ever met him before the other day.”
“Liz…” Dean wrapped his arms around her, to pull her close.
Sam tilted his head at them and waited but they just exchanged meaningful looks. “Like what?”
“Well, once, Dad and I were talking women and I mentioned something about… and mind you, this was last year before…” He pointed to Liz’s belly. “I mean, it wasn’t even something that we were discussing… We were just talking and Dad starts talking about how you treat a woman who has experienced loss. So, this is something that I knew about Liz and not something I ever talked about with Dad. I talked to Bobby about it but Bobby keeps his mouth shut when I talk.”
“You’ve never told Dad that Liz had three miscarriages.” It wasn’t a question, just looking for affirmation.
“No… how did you know?” Liz blinked at Sam. That was extremely personal and Liz could count on one hand how many people knew about that… and John wasn’t one of them.
“Because he told me… the other day when your ex was here.”
“God, how did he know that?” Liz took a breath. “I’m just concerned about him.”
“Maybe he is.” Sam whispered. “I… I’ve been seeing things… in my dreams… that have been coming true.”
“What?” Dean blinked at his brother. “So, what? I’m surrounded by psychics now?”
“Wait, what?” Sam blinked.
--
Dean turned down the radio and groaned. “This car was not meant for four people.”
“It’s a four-door. These days, it’s considered a sedan.” Sam offered.
“Bite your tongue.” Dean reached over and whacked him.
“It’s fine.” Liz winced as she adjusted her posture.
“Come ‘ere.” John turned his body so that he could stretch his leg out, then bent and lifted her legs over his. “Better?”
“Yes, thanks.” She adjusted her pillow beneath her back.
“Sam, get my tapes.” Dean glanced around.
“They’re back here.” John reached down and hauled up the box. He rifled through and tossed a cassette up front.
“I can’t believe you’d torture your future bride with the mullet rock from that box.” Sam groaned as he picked up the tape and looked it over. “In Through the Out Door? Dad? Come on. This album is now torture.”
“Just play it, Sam.” Liz grinned at John, who wore a wistful expression on his face.
“In Through the Out Door is tradition.” Dean snatched the tape from his brother’s fingers and shoved it into the player.
“Tradition. Right. Like hunting. Like salting doors. Like sigils on windows… oh wait, those are all useful.”
“It’s a tradition we’re passing on.” Liz ran her hands over her stomach.
“Okay… just to clear this up. In Through the Out Door is the most played album this vehicle has ever seen. It’s not tradition, it’s tedium.” Sam turned in his seat and then took in the expressions in the backseat. “What? What am I missing?”
“This tradition hits you a little young, Sammy. I don’t expect you to understand it but I would appreciate it if you would respect it.” John tapped Liz’s leg to emphasize himself to his youngest son.
Sam nodded to his father. “How young?”
“A year or so.” Liz answered for him.
“We’ve been listening to this tape that long?” Dean turned slightly so he could see someone in the backseat.
“You’ve been listening to this album since you were born, Dean.” John reassured him. “Probably the first song you ever heard in this world was Zeppelin.”
“Awesome.” Dean nodded and grinned. “Which song?”
“Tell him.” Liz nudged John.
“Hey, hey. How does the newcomer know the family history and we don’t?” Dean frowned.
“Well, the newcomer knows how to shut up and listen from time to time.” John reached up and flicked the back of Dean’s head. “All My Love.”
“Seriously?” Dean frowned. “But that’s on the B-side.”
“What can I say? Your mom really liked that song.”
“Mom?” Sam whispered.
“She was a complicated lady with complicated taste in music. Hated Zeppelin but she loved that song.”
“She used to sing it to me.” Dean breathed out. “She… had a pretty voice…”
“Yeah, she did.”
“Hate to tell you guys this,” she cleared her throat to cut in, “I’ll hum the song to the baby but I can’t carry a tune.”
“Dean’ll sing it.” Sam told her. “He sings that freakin’ song all the time. Least now I know why.”
“You want to tell them, Dean?” Liz bit her lip.
Dean grinned and cleared his throat. “So, uh… Liz went and got one of those ultrasound things… We’re having a girl.”
John froze. “You’re sure?”
“Yep.” Liz grinned. “So, your strong feeling was a little off, there, Grandpa.”
“So… with everyone’s permission…” Dean led and took a deep breath. “We want to name her after Mom.”
Sam nodded his assent. Liz looked to John who was frowning. “John?”
“Yeah.” He nodded, his voice thick. “You’re sure it’s a girl?”
“Yeah, we asked a couple of times.” She offered a smile. “Because you were so insistent on it being a boy.”
“When’s your due date?”
“Fall.”
The birthday was all wrong and it was just clicking. There was more off than just that. John should have known better. There was something really wrong with that wood. He had known it and ignored it. He had to stay far, far away from that wood.
“Well?” Liz nudged his knee. “John?”
“Yeah, yeah. It’s fine by me.”
“You okay, John?”
“Fine. Little carsick. Never much liked riding in the backseat.”
“You did it for months when your leg was in the brace.” Dean frowned into the rearview mirror.
“I also had prescription grade painkillers for company.”
--
John drove with Sam by his side. Dean and Liz asleep in the backseat. Sam cleared his throat. “Hey Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“The three of us were talking… comparing notes and those two seem to think that you might be psychic.”
John frowned to himself. “Really?”
“Yeah… so… I’m just wondering if what’s happening to me is… genetic.”
“I’m not psychic, Sam.” John cursed under his breath. “I don’t really know what’s going on.”
“But you know that Dean has to marry Liz.”
“They should get married.”
“You’re pretty insistent on it.”
“I want the best for my boys, Sam. If I thought that this was passing or that it would fall apart, I wouldn’t care but Dean loves Liz and he needs all the normal that he can get.”
“Yeah, cause partly-alien pregnant girlfriends are normal.”
“Yeah, well. He is Dean.”
“Yeah, that he is.” Sam pondered his next words as he checked the backseat to make sure they were still sleeping. “Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“They said you’ve been seeing someone.”
“Not exactly.”
“It’s good. That you are, though.”
“I’m not.”
“Dad…”
“I’m not.” John itched for the drive in silence. Itched for the feel of skin against his. Clearing his throat, he cast his son a glance. “I’ve got my… hang ups but there’s not a woman who can really hold my interest for very long.”
“It would be okay if you did… find a woman to hold your interest. I…” Sam’s throat went dry for a moment. “I think I know how you felt about Mom. It’s been a long time since she died and maybe it’s not a bad thing if you can move on. I know that hunting the demon is going to be the last thing you do but maybe… maybe having something like that again would… anchor you.”
“Maybe.”
“My point is… we’ve had our disagreements and we’ll probably never see eye to eye on them… but I don’t want anything to happen to you.” Sam made himself not flinch when his father laid his hand on his shoulder. “Dad?”
“I hear you, Sammy. I’m trying.”
“Since you’re hearing so well, these days. Think you could call me Sam, now?”
“Nope.” John gave his son a smile. “I didn’t hear that.”
--
John’s head swam. He greeted his old friend amiably enough. Watched Dean introduce Liz in a proper manner… more proper than the way he’d introduced her to Bobby. Sam and Jim went for a long walk after dinner. Dean and Liz took a tour of the church… and John’s head swam. The pull was strong. As if the wood were just outside Blue Earth instead of several states away. A sleepless night had John barely able to stand while everyone moved around getting ready. He shut his eyes for a second as he leaned on a wall but it was too late to fight it off.
John stared through the glass. A doctor glanced his way. “Is there someone you’re here to see?”
“My grandson.”
“Oh?”
“My first born’s first born.”
“He’s handsome.” She winked at him.
“Should be. His old man is quite the lady’s man.” He cleared his throat. “His mom’s a looker, too.”
“Come on in, Grandpa. Hold him.”
“Dad!” Sam’s voice brought John out of the false memory. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” John tried to stand upright but his knee buckled, Sam caught him and guided him to a chair. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. Something is going on with you.”
“I got a funny feeling, Sam.” John admitted. Jim and Dean were talking as Jim adjusted Dean’s tie in the kitchen. “I can’t explain it but I need you to do something for me.”
“Yeah, Dad. Anything.”
“No matter what happens today, Dean and Liz get married.”
“Dad?”
“No matter what happens to me, they finish their vows.”
“Yeah. Sure, Dad.”
--
John’s hands shook as he stepped inside the church. That small action seemed to increase his vertigo. Whatever he had got himself into, it was big. Jim was busy arranging his book on the stand and instructing the boys on where to stand. He could feel sweat breaking out on his brow. He offered Liz a tight smile when she entered, smoothing her dress over her expanding middle. He took her hand and guided her down the aisle to Dean, who wore a smirk on his face, not a bit nervous. As Jim began to speak, John felt his face flush and he fought to keep his focus on the words.
Sam watched his father stumble to the nearest pew and did his best not to call attention to it until after the rings were passed and the kisses exchanged. Then he rushed over and watched his father’s face turn purple. “Dad. Dad. Breathe.”
“Dad?”
“John?”
The voices came from all around but John’s vision had gone black. Nothing in sight. Then he was met with oblivion.
TBC
Re: Time Has Come Today (SPN/ROS, UC, AU, MA) Part 23 10/23
Part 24
Liz brushed John’s hair out of his face and blotted his face down with a wet cloth. Dean brushed up a thick foam and applied it to his father’s face and neck. Sam watched as Dean carefully shaved his father’s face with a straight razor. He’d been unconscious for a week. Pastor Jim held his nightly vigil. Nobody knew what was going on and the word was spread for anyone who could dig up anything.
“Some honeymoon.” Dean offered Liz a lame smile.
“He’ll wake up.” Liz reassured him. “He will. He’s John Winchester.”
“He’s not really a superhero, you know.” He spoke evenly as he continued to shave his father’s face. “He was a good hunter but even Dad has his moments of doubt.”
“Dad? Right.” Sam muttered. Angrier than he had ever been at his father. Whatever he’d been hiding was dangerous and he hadn’t given nearly enough warning for this.
“He does.” Dean repeated. “He never says so but he does.” He took a deep breath as he wiped up the remainder of the foam. “I think it’s been happening more and more.”
“I thought you said the hunts have been more efficient.”
“Dean’s been doing the hunting parts.” Liz revealed.
“What?” Sam stepped further into the room to hear better.
“With Dad’s leg and all the other… I was the one doing the hunting. Dad did the planning.” Casting a glance at his brother to remind him of the conversation they’d had before leaving the Catskills.
Liz took John’s vitals for the day. Heart beat was steady, which was better than it had been at first. The first day had been frightening. Liz had wanted to intervene but Dean had forbid it. They had no idea what had hold of John and it might decide it liked the taste of Liz and the baby instead.
--
Jim listened intently for the fiftieth run-through of the facts. He had something in the dusty corners of his brain but he couldn’t place it. He and Sam ransacked his library. Books littered the study.
Dean took a breath. “Dad was… exhausted. We’d done two hunts back to back. He’d gotten the tar beat out of him on the first one but I didn’t know that until he tripped over his own boots and landed in the hospital.”
“More detail, Dean.” Sam prompted.
“Like what?”
“What did he do that day?”
“Nothing. I mean… he’d gone for a walk in the woods and got lost the night before. Liz and I were up all night looking for him… what?” Dean stopped at all the looks he was getting.
“The woods, Dean.” Liz slapped his arm. “Every single time he ends up babbling nonsense, he always talks about the woods.”
“He… mentioned something about the woods to me.” A shadow in the doorway spoke up.
“Bobby?” Dean snapped his head around.
“There’s a lot more going on with that old boy than any of you know.”
--
Sam took his turn by his father’s side. No more fever. That was good. Dean crossed his arms in the doorway. “You don’t have to do that.”
“It’s my turn.” Sam dropped the damp rag on the nightstand and studied his father, who looked so much older than he remembered, even in his sleep. “You and Liz have done more than your share over the last couple of years.” He took a breath. “I can see why you’ve been so upset with me.”
“It had nothing to do with Dad being sick or whatever the hell is going on with him.”
“Then what?”
“I’ve told you.” Dean ran his hands through his hair. “I know that you and the old man have never seen eye to eye but we’re a family. You left and you didn’t look back.”
“All I ever did was look back.” Sam confessed. “Always looking over my shoulder and into the shadows and wondering how long I was going to keep… and then it all went away… just like that.”
“Sammy…”
“My name is Sam and that first time you called… was just bad timing. I’d been doing okay and I’d been at a party and I couldn’t find the right way to lie about why I never went home and so I holed up in my room with my books… pissed off at myself and at Dad and you were drunk and in a good mood and that pissed me off…”
“I’d been in a fight with Liz that day.” Dean revealed. “About you, actually.”
“I met Jess the next day and… Dean… I wanted to call but Dad told me-”
“Dad was bluffing.” Dean bit out. “Dad… went off the deep end when he realized that you weren’t coming back. The next six months were hell, Sam. Hell. I mean it. He just… and I was trying to keep him steady and I couldn’t do it on my own. If we hadn’t met Liz when we did…” He shrugged and leaned on the door frame. “I didn’t call you again because I was pissed. I bought your damn ticket and put you on the bus and I was trying to be happy for you and this is what it got me.” His voice cracked, so he had to clear out the lump to keep going. He’d come this far, he had to finish it. “Dad was so turned around that he didn’t know which way was up, hunting like a possessed thing and believe me; I tested him and tested him. He was just… I can only imagine how much like this he must have been right after Mom died. So… do me one favor.”
“What’s that?”
“Don’t ever… ever let me hear you say that Dad didn’t love us or that he didn’t care what happened to us. Okay?”
“Okay.” Sam nodded. He set his gaze on his father so that he wouldn’t embarrass Dean when Dean wiped the moisture from his eyes. “Dean… that night you bitched me out… The night that Dad answered your phone… I know that he didn’t know it was me but… what do you think he would have said if he had?”
“I don’t know. You were a non-subject for anyone that wasn’t Liz.” Dean scratched the back of his head. “He told her a lot that he’ll never tell us… even with this new open attitude that he’s got. The look on his face though… when he realized that it was you…”
“That why you laid into me the way you did?”
“Maybe… I was a little pissed at him myself, though. I didn’t want to go on the hunt. Werewolves are starting to skeeve me out, man. I was on edge already and then I came out of the shower and Dad was…”
“My first semester sucked.” Sam admitted. “All my classes were boring. I thought half my professors were demons and I kept trying to prove they were. It didn’t make me popular. My first roommate thought I was a loon. I didn’t exactly dissuade him from the idea the night I spooked myself to hell and salted the windows and the doors.” He looked to his big brother, who was starting to sport something that might be a grin. “It wasn’t until I met Jess that I started to figure out how normal people approached irritating situations.”
“She was hot. Smart too if she figured Winchester was her favorite flavor.”
“You saw her?”
“When we went to check on you, you were talking with a bunch of people and she was hanging all over you.” Dean offered Sam a wan smile. “We sat in that damn car, roasting in the California sun for almost an hour and he hardly said a word, just watched you… laughing and talking and holding on to your girl.” He took a long slow breath. “He was coming and going pretty regularly in those days. A week with us, a week on the road with a hunt and then gone for a month at a time.”
“Hey, Dean…” Sam turned to face his brother. “I was talking to Dad about some stuff and… he was pretty adamant that he wasn’t seeing anyone.”
“Well, maybe he wasn’t dating but… he was getting some pretty regular.”
“No, he was pretty… He flat out denied it to me.”
“Well, he let us believe it. He was in some pretty good moods and you know he rarely puts up with that kind of trash talk from me or anyone else.”
“Boys…” Bobby interrupted. “I need a word.”
--
Bobby cleared his throat. He nodded to Jim. “I’ve been… worried about John for some time and I’ve put him to every test I know. He’s not possessed but… there’s something he said to me that I brushed off because the rest of what he said was clearly nuts but now… I’m having to reevaluate everything we talked about in our last conversation.”
“Okay… but why isn’t Dean in on this?” Sam protested.
“Because of what John was suggesting when he was mouthing off.” Bobby cleared his throat. “Mind you, I got the highlights in a way only your Dad can do. He says that he’s living in the future. In this future… he’s doing research so he can come back and kill the thing that keeps killing Dean.”
“Yeah. Okay. I’m tracking.” Sam nodded.
“Says… in order to do his research, he has to fit in… and to fit in, he’s got this woman.”
“Okay…”
“Says he fell into it, too easy, like he had no choice. Like he was under a spell.”
“Dad did?”
“Yeah… So… the woman that he’s got in this future that he goes to…” Bobby jerked his head to the door behind him.
“No.” Sam shook his head. “Really?”
“He told me this story after I called him on the way he was staring at your brother’s girl.”
“Wife.”
“Wife.” Bobby acknowledged the correction.
“You’re saying he was what… leering at her?”
“No… Men leer at women they want and can’t have. He was watching like a man who had had that and wanted it back.” He met the pastor’s eyes. “Thing was… even while he was talking, I could tell that he knew he was saying something pathetic. Reaching, I guess but I was just… tired of trying to figure out what was wrong with him.”
“He say anything that struck you as really odd?” Sam pressed.
“Said Liz was an alien.”
“Who did?” Dean spoke up from the doorway. No one was sure how much he’d heard but from the look of him, it wasn’t much.
“Your Daddy, talking shit and pissing me off.”
“So, he goes around talking about secrets he shouldn’t be spilling.” Dean’s face flushed red, his voice deep and booming.
“What?” Bobby blinked at Dean.
“Yeah. Fine. I spilled the beans but Dad shouldn’t have been talking shit about her.”
“Dean, Dad told Bobby that he’d been visiting the future.” Sam broke it to his brother slowly. “That he was researching hunts…”
“Visiting the future? Like seeing visions?”
“The way the pieces fit together. He thought he was going someplace real, in the future and finding this stuff out so he could come back and hunt it clear out.” Sammy led his brother on. “Told Bobby he was doing it because when he went to the future… you weren’t there.”
“I wasn’t there?”
“Liz was there but you weren’t.”
“So…” Dean stilled. “I was dead.”
“Whatever did this to Dad, used his… used your death to keep him going back and…” Sam looked to Bobby. “What, to feed on him?”
“Possibly. This has been going on a while… I have no idea how long.”
“Two and a half years.” Dean whispered and sank into a chair. “He… went for a walk… and he got lost and… when he fell… He was going on about the woods and President Jenna Bush… and I just thought he was… Thought he banged his head too hard.”
“Woods.” Bobby looked from Winchester to Winchester. “What did he say about the woods?”
“He didn’t. He always went for walks and he would stay gone for weeks at a time… Once, he was gone two months.” Dean frowned. “We didn’t hunt anything when he came back…”
Pastor Jim frowned and cursed at John. Bobby just hung his head. Sam sighed heavily. “Maybe the time table was wrong.”
“I don’t know about you but I know that’s not what happened.” Bobby gave Sam a look. “Whatever it is, it’s got him turned around enough that he didn’t know what he walked into for a long damn time.”
“You think he started to figure it out?”
“Yes.” Sam nodded. “He did. That’s why we were here.”
“What are you talking about, Sammy?”
“I’m talking about the way he watches you when you’re not looking. I’m talking about how insistent he was that you marry Liz… like it would change everything.”
“Like what?”
“Like… that’s something that only he knows.”
--
Liz looked up when Dean entered the room they had taken over since John’s collapse. Dean stared at her. “This psychic mumbo jumbo… you ever get any of it from my dad?”
“No, you either. Don’t know why… just always seems to be alien related.”
“So, never?”
“No, Dean? What’s wrong?”
“Just… running over theories.”
“Like what?”
“Dad told Bobby he was… visiting the future. Bobby thought he was crazy. Said some other stuff that no one is telling me about. Made Bobby run him off the last time we were there.” Dean sank down onto the bed next to her, rubbed a firm hello to his unborn daughter. “I don’t know. Everyone’s working on a theory in there and there’s some reason that they’re not telling me everything.”
“I could try to induce a vision… but you told me no.”
“Don’t want to lose both my ladies.” He shrugged, talking mostly to her belly. “I want to see what Sam comes up with. He’s been out of the hunt a while.”
“What are your theories?” Liz covered his hand with hers. “I know you have something working in that brilliant brain of yours.” Watched the red creep up his face. “Dean, come on. Maybe talking about it will speed it along.”
“Just… Sam talks a lot. Spills his guts like tomorrow’s not coming. Says Dad says he’s not seeing anyone. You and I know what we saw. What we have seen. He’s been somewhere. With someone. He has that look. You said it yourself.”
“Sometimes, yes, he does act like a man in love. I will admit that. Doesn’t necessarily mean that there is a woman.”
“I figure that much. Where does he go? He’s not being taken care of. He’s dropping weight like crazy. More muscle now than anything else.”
“You noticed that, too?”
“He keeps going back… to save me… and I don’t need saving… but then he goes back… even when I don’t need saving.” Dean lay back, keeping contact with his hand on her belly. “Maybe a succubus and it wouldn’t be the first time. There was Miss Lyle.”
“You know… he blocked her out?” Liz tapped his chin to make sure she had his attention. “He forgot about her.”
“No he didn’t.”
“That’s what he said and when he told me, I believed him. He forgot about her. Blocked her out. The whole incident… wiped it out… probably to keep his sanity.” Liz adjusted her posture so she could stare at the ceiling. “She touched a tender nerve and he shut it off.” She stroked his arm. “Did he ever find out what kind of demon she was?”
“I don’t remember… I had a… rather abrupt and traumatizing entry into this world right after. We’d been cruising til then. Coasting on Dad’s vengeance until he learned how to really fight it and then I learned it too and we kept Sammy out of it.”
“You think this is a succubus, too?”
“I think so but I don’t know the angle. I’ve known a succubus to drain a man over months but not years. Not one so deep in the clutches.” He looked at her. “She could have had him at any time he was gone. Sucked him dry with a smile on his face.”
“What’s the endgame for a succubus?”
“What’s that?”
“What’s the point in it all? What does she get from sucking a man’s soul out through his libido?”
“Different legends by different regions. Hungry Succubus means an Incubus in the area but there’s no evidence of that.”
“Incubus?”
“Succubus steals the spunk from the man, sometimes posing as a dead wife, then takes spunk to the Incubus who uses it to impregnate a lonely widow who thinks she’s getting lucky or sometimes… the whole King Arthur deal. She fucks her husband before he’s supposed to be home from a trip then finds out that he’s dead. All cases, the birth is about hellspawn.”
“You think King Arthur was hellspawn?” She laughed.
“Dude was a master of warfare by accident, hung out with druid wizards and rebelled against his prophetic fate but ultimately ends up banging his sister, fathering the anti-Christ, and dying for nothing.”
“He fought against his nature… by your account.”
“Maybe.”
“So… you think your dad has taken up with a succubus?”
“Maybe.”
“But didn’t drain him and we don’t think he’s father to King Arthur?”
“Shut up.”
“Guess John is the only one who knows the answer to that.”
--
Liz placed her hands on John’s head. Dean helped her keep her balance in her precarious position and in her delicate condition. Pastor Jim stood by with a book of anti-possession spells. Sam stared, in awe, at what was happening. Liz whispered softly as she tried to make a connection. “Come on, John. We’ve done this before.” She took a deep breath. “Let me in, John.”
Her hands glowed and John’s eyes opened… just enough. Then Liz was swept away into images that made no sense. Then she felt it. Some outside force with a hold inside John’s head. She focused and attempted to sever it. Then it attacked. She lurched backward but kept her hands on John’s head. Dean caught her body and tried to pull her away. “No! I can do this.”
“Liz, let go.” Dean begged.
“Liz. Let go.” Sam reached over to grip her hands.
“NO! Don’t touch me!” She screamed and let energy flow down her arms and into John’s head, little by little.
John’s eyes flew open, his hands gripped Liz’s on his head.
“That’s it. John, stay with us.” Liz fought down the urge to vomit all over him and sent as much energy as she could to the thing attached to her father-in-law’s brain. It was like a leech but… there was something else. She sent one last burst and it let go. John collapsed back against the bed, eyes wide open. “John? You with us?”
“Get away from me.” John’s voice was like gravel in a turbine.
Liz let go. “Are you with us, John?”
“Dad?” Dean cut in, helping Liz off the bed and getting into his father’s line of sight.
“Dean?” John let his eyes shift to his son, then a sob erupted from his throat before he grabbed his firstborn and crushed him to his chest. “Dean, this really you?”
“Um, yeah?” Dean forced John’s hands away. “Dad, are you okay?”
“What happened?”
“We were kind of hoping that you would tell us.” Sam cut in.
“Sam?” The desperateness in his voice in that moment, brought tears to both his sons’ eyes.
“Yeah, Dad, I’m right here.” Sam stepped into John’s view and was unprepared for the arm reaching out to pull him into a hug.
Dean tipped his head toward Pastor Jim, who said a prayer and flicked holy water over them both. Nothing happened. No one flinched. He continued to pray, words that Dean couldn’t make out but probably knew by heart. He took a deep breath, exchanged looks with Pastor Jim, Liz and Sam, then cleared his throat. “Dad? What’s the last thing you remember?”
“You. Talking my ear off.” John released Sam so he could look at his other son. “Driving through… New York State.”
“Jesus Christ, Dad.” Dean sagged against the wall. “That was two and a half years ago.”
“Say what?”
“John?” Pastor Jim walked around the side of the bed with his book, his bible and his rosary. “Tell me how you got here. Tell me why you’re here.”
“Jim?” John shut his eyes and tried to remember but he really didn’t know how he got here. Opening his eyes slowly, he became aware of his head pounding. Then his eyes focused on the doorway where his oldest son was holding a pregnant woman. Both of them crying. “Dean?”
“Get some rest, Dad. We’ll talk later.”
--
John showered but didn’t recognize himself. He couldn’t remember being this thin, fit… not since his days in the service. Never thought he’d ever look so old… or live so long to look so old. “Two and a half years… I missed my fiftieth birthday.”
“Dean says that you spent it sitting on a bench, drinking lemonade because you were on pain pills and couldn’t drink.” Sam sat on the edge of the bathtub.
John had to smile at that. Tall and lanky as Sam was, he always seemed to be able to fold himself up to fit in the tiniest of places. “Why was I on pain pills?”
“You fractured your femur.” Sam relayed with drawn out words as if he didn’t believe the story himself.
“How in the hell did I do that?”
“Said you got drunk and tried to take on a set of stairs to get to a new bottle. The stairs won.”
John nodded. Given the last hunt he remembered and the last few bottles that he was sure he didn’t… a drunken stumble seemed about right. “Who’s the girl?”
Sam stared at his father, new knowledge making his mouth wary. “That’s Liz.”
“Whose baby?”
“Dean’s.” Sam said with a smile. “I’d never in a million years would have thought that he’d get married and then he did and she’s gonna have his baby and I really think that… he’s gonna be a good father.”
“When did they get married?”
“Last week… literally two seconds before you passed out on us.” Sam studied his father studying himself. “You were pretty adamant that those two get married… no matter what. It was like you expected something to happen to you.”
There. Some clue as to what was going on. “What did I tell you two?”
“Nothing to Dean. Nothing to Liz. You kept it between you and me because you really didn’t want them to stay unmarried.” He cleared his throat. “You and Liz are pretty close, Dad.”
“How’s that?”
“For whatever reason, she likes you. You get along. You piss each other off…”
“But we’re close. How’s that?” John repeated.
“You have an understanding. You’d both kill for Dean and that gets her in the family in my book. Maybe yours, too.”
--
To say that she was tired didn’t cover the weariness in Liz’s bones. Her head pounded, her legs felt like noodles and her belly cramped something awful. Dean stroked her hair out of her face. “Liz, you see something?”
“No.” She shook her head slowly. “Nothing… but… there was definitely something there.”
Dean’s attention was torn. His wife, the mother of his unborn child, needed something that he didn’t know how to give and his father, out of it for a week, and limping around trying to regain his memory. Pastor Jim and Bobby kept exchanging looks. Pastor Jim was whispering about something that Dean could barely make out… didn’t stop him from trying.
“Liz… talk to me.” Dean prompted once more.
“Dean… I think that we tried it too late. I think that whatever had a hold of him…” She looked up at them. “I think it was erasing his memory while he slept. Covering its tracks. It attacked me when I…” She took a breath and let it out slowly. “I can’t really describe how it felt… I’ve seen bad things in my life… but they all had human motivation to them. This thing is evil. It doesn’t want John dead, it wants to destroy him from the inside out.”
--
John put on fresh clothes, wondered at how baggy they fit. Grateful for the belt that Sam lent him. Sam. Grateful that Sam was there. Wanted to ask, about college, but didn’t… just stared. “Did you come home for Dean’s wedding?”
“No.” Sam shook his head, tears pricking his eyes. “I came because you called me.”
John’s chin trembled as visions of their fight flashed in his head. The things he had said to his son. So many things he had wanted to take back but was too proud to tell Sam that he didn’t mean any of it. “I called you? What did I say?”
“Not a whole lot. Said… you knew about what happened to my girlfriend, which I’ll explain later, and told me that I should be with the family… so that I wasn’t dealing with it on my own.” Sam took a breath and met his father’s eyes. “You said that it was good to hear my voice.”
“Even better to see you with my own eyes.” John admitted, vision blurred by unspilled tears. “You look good. I think you even got taller.”
“Yeah, half an inch. Not much.” Sam shrugged. “I uh… never quite got out of the habit of early morning drills.”
“Dean ain’t done those in years.” John studied his boy’s face. Found all the things he’d missed. All the tells because Sam had always been a crappy poker player.
“I know but… um… wake up, kiss Jess, push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, a two-mile run and back home for breakfast, studying and off to class.” It was Sam’s turn to allow a small tremble to creep up his jaw. “I miss that.”
“How’d she die, son?” John placed a warm hand on his son’s shoulder.
“She burned.” He swallowed down the lump, found his anger and lifted vengeful eyes. “On the ceiling.” He managed to tamp it down a bit. “So, after we figure out what had its hooks in you, we’re hunting that son of a bitch down.”
--
Liz leaned against Dean, felt his kisses in her hair and his hand rubbing her belly. Watched as Sam, Bobby and Jim performed all manner of rituals over John’s head. Dean whispered in her ear. “Are you okay?”
“Once we started up, he became like a father to me… I tease you about how good looking he is because I know it gets your hackles up… It… hurts to see him like this…” She touched her belly.
“Yeah. I hear you. I’m going to miss him.”
Her hand stilled his. “Cramps are gone. She’s kicking though.”
“Yeah.” Dean leaned his head against hers.
“He’s clean.” Pastor Jim announced. “I can’t swear that he was when he walked in but he’s clean now.”
“He’s just missing two and a half years of memory.” Dean snorted and got to his feet to help his father up. “You don’t deserve not to remember them.”
“That’s a tone you’re taking to me.” John stared at his oldest son in awe at the change.
“Yes, sir, it is. Hospital visits, overdoses, talking to yourself, taking liberties with my life that I should have told you better about… I’m telling you now. You’re missing those years but I am not.” Dean straightened his father’s shirt. “I’ve done my share, all my life, of taking care of you, Dad. I don’t want to do it again unless you’re senile, in which case, I’ll find a home to take you and strap you down.”
John nodded to himself. “Took you long enough to complain about it.”
“Well, I’m spread a bit more thin than I was growing up and it’ll be thinner come fall and… I can’t pick you up and dust you off anymore.” Dean glanced back to his wife. Wife. How weird was that?
John nodded to himself, recognizing the look on his son’s face and wished he could remember how it got there. “I guess not. But you never should have had to.” Glancing over to make sure that he had the privacy he needed, John stepped closer. “You keeping her safe?”
“Yeah, Dad. We both do.”
John felt moisture gather in his eyes for what felt like the hundredth time all day. “It’s… good to see you this way, Dean. It really is. Means that I didn’t mess you up too badly.”
“Not that you didn’t try but… you’ve been a different person these last months.” Dean took a deep breath. “I’m gonna miss that you. I love you but… sometimes you are one ornery son of a bitch.”
“You watch how you’re talking about your grandmother.” He gripped Dean’s shoulder in a firm squeeze. “I know it, though.”
“You’re… kind of mellow for a guy who was in a coma for a week and lost two years of memory.”
“Ain’t got a choice but to figure it out as I go, now do I.” John stepped back. “I go on a diet?”
“Booze… workouts for the… drainage backup but… other than that…” Dean crossed his arms. “Dad, I didn’t have a clue what was going on with you these last couple of years.”
“But you do now?”
“No, but there’s something out there gunning for you.” Dean glanced over at his wife. “Do you remember Sue Lyle?”
“Sue Lyle?” John reached out to grip his boy. “Killed that bitch for trying to kill you.”
“Me?” Dean blinked at his father. “I thought she went after Sam.”
“She took Sam. Wanted Sam… she tried to kill us.” John shook his head.
“What? Why? Why didn’t you ever tell me that?”
“I… forgot…”
“Why would she want to take Sam?”
“Azazel?” Sam questioned as he reentered the room. “Because of Azazel?”
“Who?” John turned.
“You told me that was the name of the demon that killed Mom, killed Jess.” Sam watched his father carefully. “A demon tried to take me when I was a kid, huh? Miss Lyle?” John nodded. “And now I’m seeing things that happen? Dad, what the hell is going on? What do you know?”
John looked between his sons then jerked his head towards the table covered in books. “Boys, we’ve got work to do.”
TBC
Liz brushed John’s hair out of his face and blotted his face down with a wet cloth. Dean brushed up a thick foam and applied it to his father’s face and neck. Sam watched as Dean carefully shaved his father’s face with a straight razor. He’d been unconscious for a week. Pastor Jim held his nightly vigil. Nobody knew what was going on and the word was spread for anyone who could dig up anything.
“Some honeymoon.” Dean offered Liz a lame smile.
“He’ll wake up.” Liz reassured him. “He will. He’s John Winchester.”
“He’s not really a superhero, you know.” He spoke evenly as he continued to shave his father’s face. “He was a good hunter but even Dad has his moments of doubt.”
“Dad? Right.” Sam muttered. Angrier than he had ever been at his father. Whatever he’d been hiding was dangerous and he hadn’t given nearly enough warning for this.
“He does.” Dean repeated. “He never says so but he does.” He took a deep breath as he wiped up the remainder of the foam. “I think it’s been happening more and more.”
“I thought you said the hunts have been more efficient.”
“Dean’s been doing the hunting parts.” Liz revealed.
“What?” Sam stepped further into the room to hear better.
“With Dad’s leg and all the other… I was the one doing the hunting. Dad did the planning.” Casting a glance at his brother to remind him of the conversation they’d had before leaving the Catskills.
Liz took John’s vitals for the day. Heart beat was steady, which was better than it had been at first. The first day had been frightening. Liz had wanted to intervene but Dean had forbid it. They had no idea what had hold of John and it might decide it liked the taste of Liz and the baby instead.
--
Jim listened intently for the fiftieth run-through of the facts. He had something in the dusty corners of his brain but he couldn’t place it. He and Sam ransacked his library. Books littered the study.
Dean took a breath. “Dad was… exhausted. We’d done two hunts back to back. He’d gotten the tar beat out of him on the first one but I didn’t know that until he tripped over his own boots and landed in the hospital.”
“More detail, Dean.” Sam prompted.
“Like what?”
“What did he do that day?”
“Nothing. I mean… he’d gone for a walk in the woods and got lost the night before. Liz and I were up all night looking for him… what?” Dean stopped at all the looks he was getting.
“The woods, Dean.” Liz slapped his arm. “Every single time he ends up babbling nonsense, he always talks about the woods.”
“He… mentioned something about the woods to me.” A shadow in the doorway spoke up.
“Bobby?” Dean snapped his head around.
“There’s a lot more going on with that old boy than any of you know.”
--
Sam took his turn by his father’s side. No more fever. That was good. Dean crossed his arms in the doorway. “You don’t have to do that.”
“It’s my turn.” Sam dropped the damp rag on the nightstand and studied his father, who looked so much older than he remembered, even in his sleep. “You and Liz have done more than your share over the last couple of years.” He took a breath. “I can see why you’ve been so upset with me.”
“It had nothing to do with Dad being sick or whatever the hell is going on with him.”
“Then what?”
“I’ve told you.” Dean ran his hands through his hair. “I know that you and the old man have never seen eye to eye but we’re a family. You left and you didn’t look back.”
“All I ever did was look back.” Sam confessed. “Always looking over my shoulder and into the shadows and wondering how long I was going to keep… and then it all went away… just like that.”
“Sammy…”
“My name is Sam and that first time you called… was just bad timing. I’d been doing okay and I’d been at a party and I couldn’t find the right way to lie about why I never went home and so I holed up in my room with my books… pissed off at myself and at Dad and you were drunk and in a good mood and that pissed me off…”
“I’d been in a fight with Liz that day.” Dean revealed. “About you, actually.”
“I met Jess the next day and… Dean… I wanted to call but Dad told me-”
“Dad was bluffing.” Dean bit out. “Dad… went off the deep end when he realized that you weren’t coming back. The next six months were hell, Sam. Hell. I mean it. He just… and I was trying to keep him steady and I couldn’t do it on my own. If we hadn’t met Liz when we did…” He shrugged and leaned on the door frame. “I didn’t call you again because I was pissed. I bought your damn ticket and put you on the bus and I was trying to be happy for you and this is what it got me.” His voice cracked, so he had to clear out the lump to keep going. He’d come this far, he had to finish it. “Dad was so turned around that he didn’t know which way was up, hunting like a possessed thing and believe me; I tested him and tested him. He was just… I can only imagine how much like this he must have been right after Mom died. So… do me one favor.”
“What’s that?”
“Don’t ever… ever let me hear you say that Dad didn’t love us or that he didn’t care what happened to us. Okay?”
“Okay.” Sam nodded. He set his gaze on his father so that he wouldn’t embarrass Dean when Dean wiped the moisture from his eyes. “Dean… that night you bitched me out… The night that Dad answered your phone… I know that he didn’t know it was me but… what do you think he would have said if he had?”
“I don’t know. You were a non-subject for anyone that wasn’t Liz.” Dean scratched the back of his head. “He told her a lot that he’ll never tell us… even with this new open attitude that he’s got. The look on his face though… when he realized that it was you…”
“That why you laid into me the way you did?”
“Maybe… I was a little pissed at him myself, though. I didn’t want to go on the hunt. Werewolves are starting to skeeve me out, man. I was on edge already and then I came out of the shower and Dad was…”
“My first semester sucked.” Sam admitted. “All my classes were boring. I thought half my professors were demons and I kept trying to prove they were. It didn’t make me popular. My first roommate thought I was a loon. I didn’t exactly dissuade him from the idea the night I spooked myself to hell and salted the windows and the doors.” He looked to his big brother, who was starting to sport something that might be a grin. “It wasn’t until I met Jess that I started to figure out how normal people approached irritating situations.”
“She was hot. Smart too if she figured Winchester was her favorite flavor.”
“You saw her?”
“When we went to check on you, you were talking with a bunch of people and she was hanging all over you.” Dean offered Sam a wan smile. “We sat in that damn car, roasting in the California sun for almost an hour and he hardly said a word, just watched you… laughing and talking and holding on to your girl.” He took a long slow breath. “He was coming and going pretty regularly in those days. A week with us, a week on the road with a hunt and then gone for a month at a time.”
“Hey, Dean…” Sam turned to face his brother. “I was talking to Dad about some stuff and… he was pretty adamant that he wasn’t seeing anyone.”
“Well, maybe he wasn’t dating but… he was getting some pretty regular.”
“No, he was pretty… He flat out denied it to me.”
“Well, he let us believe it. He was in some pretty good moods and you know he rarely puts up with that kind of trash talk from me or anyone else.”
“Boys…” Bobby interrupted. “I need a word.”
--
Bobby cleared his throat. He nodded to Jim. “I’ve been… worried about John for some time and I’ve put him to every test I know. He’s not possessed but… there’s something he said to me that I brushed off because the rest of what he said was clearly nuts but now… I’m having to reevaluate everything we talked about in our last conversation.”
“Okay… but why isn’t Dean in on this?” Sam protested.
“Because of what John was suggesting when he was mouthing off.” Bobby cleared his throat. “Mind you, I got the highlights in a way only your Dad can do. He says that he’s living in the future. In this future… he’s doing research so he can come back and kill the thing that keeps killing Dean.”
“Yeah. Okay. I’m tracking.” Sam nodded.
“Says… in order to do his research, he has to fit in… and to fit in, he’s got this woman.”
“Okay…”
“Says he fell into it, too easy, like he had no choice. Like he was under a spell.”
“Dad did?”
“Yeah… So… the woman that he’s got in this future that he goes to…” Bobby jerked his head to the door behind him.
“No.” Sam shook his head. “Really?”
“He told me this story after I called him on the way he was staring at your brother’s girl.”
“Wife.”
“Wife.” Bobby acknowledged the correction.
“You’re saying he was what… leering at her?”
“No… Men leer at women they want and can’t have. He was watching like a man who had had that and wanted it back.” He met the pastor’s eyes. “Thing was… even while he was talking, I could tell that he knew he was saying something pathetic. Reaching, I guess but I was just… tired of trying to figure out what was wrong with him.”
“He say anything that struck you as really odd?” Sam pressed.
“Said Liz was an alien.”
“Who did?” Dean spoke up from the doorway. No one was sure how much he’d heard but from the look of him, it wasn’t much.
“Your Daddy, talking shit and pissing me off.”
“So, he goes around talking about secrets he shouldn’t be spilling.” Dean’s face flushed red, his voice deep and booming.
“What?” Bobby blinked at Dean.
“Yeah. Fine. I spilled the beans but Dad shouldn’t have been talking shit about her.”
“Dean, Dad told Bobby that he’d been visiting the future.” Sam broke it to his brother slowly. “That he was researching hunts…”
“Visiting the future? Like seeing visions?”
“The way the pieces fit together. He thought he was going someplace real, in the future and finding this stuff out so he could come back and hunt it clear out.” Sammy led his brother on. “Told Bobby he was doing it because when he went to the future… you weren’t there.”
“I wasn’t there?”
“Liz was there but you weren’t.”
“So…” Dean stilled. “I was dead.”
“Whatever did this to Dad, used his… used your death to keep him going back and…” Sam looked to Bobby. “What, to feed on him?”
“Possibly. This has been going on a while… I have no idea how long.”
“Two and a half years.” Dean whispered and sank into a chair. “He… went for a walk… and he got lost and… when he fell… He was going on about the woods and President Jenna Bush… and I just thought he was… Thought he banged his head too hard.”
“Woods.” Bobby looked from Winchester to Winchester. “What did he say about the woods?”
“He didn’t. He always went for walks and he would stay gone for weeks at a time… Once, he was gone two months.” Dean frowned. “We didn’t hunt anything when he came back…”
Pastor Jim frowned and cursed at John. Bobby just hung his head. Sam sighed heavily. “Maybe the time table was wrong.”
“I don’t know about you but I know that’s not what happened.” Bobby gave Sam a look. “Whatever it is, it’s got him turned around enough that he didn’t know what he walked into for a long damn time.”
“You think he started to figure it out?”
“Yes.” Sam nodded. “He did. That’s why we were here.”
“What are you talking about, Sammy?”
“I’m talking about the way he watches you when you’re not looking. I’m talking about how insistent he was that you marry Liz… like it would change everything.”
“Like what?”
“Like… that’s something that only he knows.”
--
Liz looked up when Dean entered the room they had taken over since John’s collapse. Dean stared at her. “This psychic mumbo jumbo… you ever get any of it from my dad?”
“No, you either. Don’t know why… just always seems to be alien related.”
“So, never?”
“No, Dean? What’s wrong?”
“Just… running over theories.”
“Like what?”
“Dad told Bobby he was… visiting the future. Bobby thought he was crazy. Said some other stuff that no one is telling me about. Made Bobby run him off the last time we were there.” Dean sank down onto the bed next to her, rubbed a firm hello to his unborn daughter. “I don’t know. Everyone’s working on a theory in there and there’s some reason that they’re not telling me everything.”
“I could try to induce a vision… but you told me no.”
“Don’t want to lose both my ladies.” He shrugged, talking mostly to her belly. “I want to see what Sam comes up with. He’s been out of the hunt a while.”
“What are your theories?” Liz covered his hand with hers. “I know you have something working in that brilliant brain of yours.” Watched the red creep up his face. “Dean, come on. Maybe talking about it will speed it along.”
“Just… Sam talks a lot. Spills his guts like tomorrow’s not coming. Says Dad says he’s not seeing anyone. You and I know what we saw. What we have seen. He’s been somewhere. With someone. He has that look. You said it yourself.”
“Sometimes, yes, he does act like a man in love. I will admit that. Doesn’t necessarily mean that there is a woman.”
“I figure that much. Where does he go? He’s not being taken care of. He’s dropping weight like crazy. More muscle now than anything else.”
“You noticed that, too?”
“He keeps going back… to save me… and I don’t need saving… but then he goes back… even when I don’t need saving.” Dean lay back, keeping contact with his hand on her belly. “Maybe a succubus and it wouldn’t be the first time. There was Miss Lyle.”
“You know… he blocked her out?” Liz tapped his chin to make sure she had his attention. “He forgot about her.”
“No he didn’t.”
“That’s what he said and when he told me, I believed him. He forgot about her. Blocked her out. The whole incident… wiped it out… probably to keep his sanity.” Liz adjusted her posture so she could stare at the ceiling. “She touched a tender nerve and he shut it off.” She stroked his arm. “Did he ever find out what kind of demon she was?”
“I don’t remember… I had a… rather abrupt and traumatizing entry into this world right after. We’d been cruising til then. Coasting on Dad’s vengeance until he learned how to really fight it and then I learned it too and we kept Sammy out of it.”
“You think this is a succubus, too?”
“I think so but I don’t know the angle. I’ve known a succubus to drain a man over months but not years. Not one so deep in the clutches.” He looked at her. “She could have had him at any time he was gone. Sucked him dry with a smile on his face.”
“What’s the endgame for a succubus?”
“What’s that?”
“What’s the point in it all? What does she get from sucking a man’s soul out through his libido?”
“Different legends by different regions. Hungry Succubus means an Incubus in the area but there’s no evidence of that.”
“Incubus?”
“Succubus steals the spunk from the man, sometimes posing as a dead wife, then takes spunk to the Incubus who uses it to impregnate a lonely widow who thinks she’s getting lucky or sometimes… the whole King Arthur deal. She fucks her husband before he’s supposed to be home from a trip then finds out that he’s dead. All cases, the birth is about hellspawn.”
“You think King Arthur was hellspawn?” She laughed.
“Dude was a master of warfare by accident, hung out with druid wizards and rebelled against his prophetic fate but ultimately ends up banging his sister, fathering the anti-Christ, and dying for nothing.”
“He fought against his nature… by your account.”
“Maybe.”
“So… you think your dad has taken up with a succubus?”
“Maybe.”
“But didn’t drain him and we don’t think he’s father to King Arthur?”
“Shut up.”
“Guess John is the only one who knows the answer to that.”
--
Liz placed her hands on John’s head. Dean helped her keep her balance in her precarious position and in her delicate condition. Pastor Jim stood by with a book of anti-possession spells. Sam stared, in awe, at what was happening. Liz whispered softly as she tried to make a connection. “Come on, John. We’ve done this before.” She took a deep breath. “Let me in, John.”
Her hands glowed and John’s eyes opened… just enough. Then Liz was swept away into images that made no sense. Then she felt it. Some outside force with a hold inside John’s head. She focused and attempted to sever it. Then it attacked. She lurched backward but kept her hands on John’s head. Dean caught her body and tried to pull her away. “No! I can do this.”
“Liz, let go.” Dean begged.
“Liz. Let go.” Sam reached over to grip her hands.
“NO! Don’t touch me!” She screamed and let energy flow down her arms and into John’s head, little by little.
John’s eyes flew open, his hands gripped Liz’s on his head.
“That’s it. John, stay with us.” Liz fought down the urge to vomit all over him and sent as much energy as she could to the thing attached to her father-in-law’s brain. It was like a leech but… there was something else. She sent one last burst and it let go. John collapsed back against the bed, eyes wide open. “John? You with us?”
“Get away from me.” John’s voice was like gravel in a turbine.
Liz let go. “Are you with us, John?”
“Dad?” Dean cut in, helping Liz off the bed and getting into his father’s line of sight.
“Dean?” John let his eyes shift to his son, then a sob erupted from his throat before he grabbed his firstborn and crushed him to his chest. “Dean, this really you?”
“Um, yeah?” Dean forced John’s hands away. “Dad, are you okay?”
“What happened?”
“We were kind of hoping that you would tell us.” Sam cut in.
“Sam?” The desperateness in his voice in that moment, brought tears to both his sons’ eyes.
“Yeah, Dad, I’m right here.” Sam stepped into John’s view and was unprepared for the arm reaching out to pull him into a hug.
Dean tipped his head toward Pastor Jim, who said a prayer and flicked holy water over them both. Nothing happened. No one flinched. He continued to pray, words that Dean couldn’t make out but probably knew by heart. He took a deep breath, exchanged looks with Pastor Jim, Liz and Sam, then cleared his throat. “Dad? What’s the last thing you remember?”
“You. Talking my ear off.” John released Sam so he could look at his other son. “Driving through… New York State.”
“Jesus Christ, Dad.” Dean sagged against the wall. “That was two and a half years ago.”
“Say what?”
“John?” Pastor Jim walked around the side of the bed with his book, his bible and his rosary. “Tell me how you got here. Tell me why you’re here.”
“Jim?” John shut his eyes and tried to remember but he really didn’t know how he got here. Opening his eyes slowly, he became aware of his head pounding. Then his eyes focused on the doorway where his oldest son was holding a pregnant woman. Both of them crying. “Dean?”
“Get some rest, Dad. We’ll talk later.”
--
John showered but didn’t recognize himself. He couldn’t remember being this thin, fit… not since his days in the service. Never thought he’d ever look so old… or live so long to look so old. “Two and a half years… I missed my fiftieth birthday.”
“Dean says that you spent it sitting on a bench, drinking lemonade because you were on pain pills and couldn’t drink.” Sam sat on the edge of the bathtub.
John had to smile at that. Tall and lanky as Sam was, he always seemed to be able to fold himself up to fit in the tiniest of places. “Why was I on pain pills?”
“You fractured your femur.” Sam relayed with drawn out words as if he didn’t believe the story himself.
“How in the hell did I do that?”
“Said you got drunk and tried to take on a set of stairs to get to a new bottle. The stairs won.”
John nodded. Given the last hunt he remembered and the last few bottles that he was sure he didn’t… a drunken stumble seemed about right. “Who’s the girl?”
Sam stared at his father, new knowledge making his mouth wary. “That’s Liz.”
“Whose baby?”
“Dean’s.” Sam said with a smile. “I’d never in a million years would have thought that he’d get married and then he did and she’s gonna have his baby and I really think that… he’s gonna be a good father.”
“When did they get married?”
“Last week… literally two seconds before you passed out on us.” Sam studied his father studying himself. “You were pretty adamant that those two get married… no matter what. It was like you expected something to happen to you.”
There. Some clue as to what was going on. “What did I tell you two?”
“Nothing to Dean. Nothing to Liz. You kept it between you and me because you really didn’t want them to stay unmarried.” He cleared his throat. “You and Liz are pretty close, Dad.”
“How’s that?”
“For whatever reason, she likes you. You get along. You piss each other off…”
“But we’re close. How’s that?” John repeated.
“You have an understanding. You’d both kill for Dean and that gets her in the family in my book. Maybe yours, too.”
--
To say that she was tired didn’t cover the weariness in Liz’s bones. Her head pounded, her legs felt like noodles and her belly cramped something awful. Dean stroked her hair out of her face. “Liz, you see something?”
“No.” She shook her head slowly. “Nothing… but… there was definitely something there.”
Dean’s attention was torn. His wife, the mother of his unborn child, needed something that he didn’t know how to give and his father, out of it for a week, and limping around trying to regain his memory. Pastor Jim and Bobby kept exchanging looks. Pastor Jim was whispering about something that Dean could barely make out… didn’t stop him from trying.
“Liz… talk to me.” Dean prompted once more.
“Dean… I think that we tried it too late. I think that whatever had a hold of him…” She looked up at them. “I think it was erasing his memory while he slept. Covering its tracks. It attacked me when I…” She took a breath and let it out slowly. “I can’t really describe how it felt… I’ve seen bad things in my life… but they all had human motivation to them. This thing is evil. It doesn’t want John dead, it wants to destroy him from the inside out.”
--
John put on fresh clothes, wondered at how baggy they fit. Grateful for the belt that Sam lent him. Sam. Grateful that Sam was there. Wanted to ask, about college, but didn’t… just stared. “Did you come home for Dean’s wedding?”
“No.” Sam shook his head, tears pricking his eyes. “I came because you called me.”
John’s chin trembled as visions of their fight flashed in his head. The things he had said to his son. So many things he had wanted to take back but was too proud to tell Sam that he didn’t mean any of it. “I called you? What did I say?”
“Not a whole lot. Said… you knew about what happened to my girlfriend, which I’ll explain later, and told me that I should be with the family… so that I wasn’t dealing with it on my own.” Sam took a breath and met his father’s eyes. “You said that it was good to hear my voice.”
“Even better to see you with my own eyes.” John admitted, vision blurred by unspilled tears. “You look good. I think you even got taller.”
“Yeah, half an inch. Not much.” Sam shrugged. “I uh… never quite got out of the habit of early morning drills.”
“Dean ain’t done those in years.” John studied his boy’s face. Found all the things he’d missed. All the tells because Sam had always been a crappy poker player.
“I know but… um… wake up, kiss Jess, push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, a two-mile run and back home for breakfast, studying and off to class.” It was Sam’s turn to allow a small tremble to creep up his jaw. “I miss that.”
“How’d she die, son?” John placed a warm hand on his son’s shoulder.
“She burned.” He swallowed down the lump, found his anger and lifted vengeful eyes. “On the ceiling.” He managed to tamp it down a bit. “So, after we figure out what had its hooks in you, we’re hunting that son of a bitch down.”
--
Liz leaned against Dean, felt his kisses in her hair and his hand rubbing her belly. Watched as Sam, Bobby and Jim performed all manner of rituals over John’s head. Dean whispered in her ear. “Are you okay?”
“Once we started up, he became like a father to me… I tease you about how good looking he is because I know it gets your hackles up… It… hurts to see him like this…” She touched her belly.
“Yeah. I hear you. I’m going to miss him.”
Her hand stilled his. “Cramps are gone. She’s kicking though.”
“Yeah.” Dean leaned his head against hers.
“He’s clean.” Pastor Jim announced. “I can’t swear that he was when he walked in but he’s clean now.”
“He’s just missing two and a half years of memory.” Dean snorted and got to his feet to help his father up. “You don’t deserve not to remember them.”
“That’s a tone you’re taking to me.” John stared at his oldest son in awe at the change.
“Yes, sir, it is. Hospital visits, overdoses, talking to yourself, taking liberties with my life that I should have told you better about… I’m telling you now. You’re missing those years but I am not.” Dean straightened his father’s shirt. “I’ve done my share, all my life, of taking care of you, Dad. I don’t want to do it again unless you’re senile, in which case, I’ll find a home to take you and strap you down.”
John nodded to himself. “Took you long enough to complain about it.”
“Well, I’m spread a bit more thin than I was growing up and it’ll be thinner come fall and… I can’t pick you up and dust you off anymore.” Dean glanced back to his wife. Wife. How weird was that?
John nodded to himself, recognizing the look on his son’s face and wished he could remember how it got there. “I guess not. But you never should have had to.” Glancing over to make sure that he had the privacy he needed, John stepped closer. “You keeping her safe?”
“Yeah, Dad. We both do.”
John felt moisture gather in his eyes for what felt like the hundredth time all day. “It’s… good to see you this way, Dean. It really is. Means that I didn’t mess you up too badly.”
“Not that you didn’t try but… you’ve been a different person these last months.” Dean took a deep breath. “I’m gonna miss that you. I love you but… sometimes you are one ornery son of a bitch.”
“You watch how you’re talking about your grandmother.” He gripped Dean’s shoulder in a firm squeeze. “I know it, though.”
“You’re… kind of mellow for a guy who was in a coma for a week and lost two years of memory.”
“Ain’t got a choice but to figure it out as I go, now do I.” John stepped back. “I go on a diet?”
“Booze… workouts for the… drainage backup but… other than that…” Dean crossed his arms. “Dad, I didn’t have a clue what was going on with you these last couple of years.”
“But you do now?”
“No, but there’s something out there gunning for you.” Dean glanced over at his wife. “Do you remember Sue Lyle?”
“Sue Lyle?” John reached out to grip his boy. “Killed that bitch for trying to kill you.”
“Me?” Dean blinked at his father. “I thought she went after Sam.”
“She took Sam. Wanted Sam… she tried to kill us.” John shook his head.
“What? Why? Why didn’t you ever tell me that?”
“I… forgot…”
“Why would she want to take Sam?”
“Azazel?” Sam questioned as he reentered the room. “Because of Azazel?”
“Who?” John turned.
“You told me that was the name of the demon that killed Mom, killed Jess.” Sam watched his father carefully. “A demon tried to take me when I was a kid, huh? Miss Lyle?” John nodded. “And now I’m seeing things that happen? Dad, what the hell is going on? What do you know?”
John looked between his sons then jerked his head towards the table covered in books. “Boys, we’ve got work to do.”
TBC
Re: Time Has Come Today (SPN/ROS, UC, AU, MA) Part 25 10/24
Part 25
Liz set a bowl of food on the table. Maybe someone would eat it. She kept her distance from John but couldn’t stop watching him. He pored over the books, the fingers of his right hand rubbing over the gold ring on his left hand. His pen hooked over his middle finger until he made a note over some of Sam’s and circled some of Dean’s. Suddenly, he looked up to catch her eye. “Not hungry.”
“You are.” Liz corrected him and set a fork next to him before moving across the room again.
John read a few more sentences before he picked up the fork to eat because he was hungry but he hadn’t wanted to lose his place. Dean cleared his throat but didn’t say anything. Nobody was saying anything of relevance. Their notes clued him in loud and clear that there was a part of the story that no one was telling him. No one was explaining why there were notes on personal fantasies and why Djinn texts were even on the table.
Halfway through the bowl, he noticed something he should have noticed sooner. “Dean… where’s my journal?”
“In your bag, probably.” Liz piped up from the doorway. “I’ll go look.”
“She knows about this?” John asked quietly.
Dean looked up. “Yeah.”
“Your son’s not hunting.” John cleared his throat and turned when Liz tapped him with the journal. “Thanks.”
“Daughter. Not son.” Liz corrected. “She’s not going to hunt.” She looked to Dean. “We’ve already discussed it.” Dean reached out and tugged her into his side. “Dean, you have to tell him again.”
“Tell me what again?”
“On the way up here.” Dean averted his eyes. “We had a family meeting.” He looked to his brother. “We were all in agreement but I don’t want to spring it on you at the last minute. We’re naming her after Mom.”
John nodded, his fingers sliding over the gold ring on his left hand. “Sounds… good. Even better if we can kill the evil son of a bitch who killed her grandmother.”
“You remember anything?” Dean asked for the millionth time. “When you woke up, you seemed surprised to see me.”
“I didn’t know what was happening.” John admitted. “I didn’t know where you were.”
“So, nothing?”
“No.”
“You didn’t write anything down from all your trips, John.” Liz worded her sentence carefully. “We don’t know where you were going or what you were doing or if you were hunting anything.”
John only nodded and slipped a picture from the front pocket of his journal. It was a bad shot. Mary had always hated it but he loved it. “We’ll figure it out.”
--
Bobby turned from his books. “What kind of trees are in this wood? The wood that John was babbling about.”
Liz blinked at him. “Um… some Oak, mostly along the roads. Willows…” She turned to grab Sam’s laptop to pull up a map of the area.
“Where does he take his walks?”
“I don’t know how far he goes but I remember he was gone for hours.” Liz pulled up a satellite imagine of her little town. “See, he would disappear through here.”
“These look like elders.”
“I think so.”
“Huh.”
“What?”
“You’re right. Elders and willows and pines into the hillside but the edge is rimmed with Oak and… that looks like… Larch?”
Liz couldn’t get a good look in the satellite image and had to run out to the car. Dean met her as she was rifling through some pictures in the backseat. “They’re alternated in groups…”
“What?” Dean looked at the pictures.
“That’s a Larch… four of them, kind of close together and that’s an Oak cluster. They alternate that way all the way down the highway.” She explained as she examined the backgrounds of each picture all the way into Jim’s study. “Larch is protection against evil, right? What about oak?”
“Oak, especially white oak, is used for solidifying or fortifying a spell.” Bobby tapped the book he was reading out of. “So, the next question is what is in that wood that no one wanted getting out?”
“Bobby, it’s a big wood. Lots of trees. How sure are you that someone trapped something inside?” Dean protested.
“I’m not. Only one who knew was your daddy but he don’t know anymore.” Bobby jerked his head towards the door. “It’s all starting to add up though.”
“So… say there is something in there. It can’t get out but Dad walked into it.”
“I’d say so and he could have walked into something big.” Bobby rubbed a hand over his beard. “Who knows how long whatever it is has been in there. The spell could have weakened after all this time.”
“The treeline is pretty dense though. Looks like new trees growing in between the old trees.” Liz pointed out. “Wouldn’t that make the spell stronger.”
“Only if other trees in the protection line weren’t cut down by people who didn’t know why they were there.” Bobby rolled his eyes as if everyone should know to ask questions before chopping down any tree in the woods.
“How will we know what’s in there?” Liz gazed back at the room with the books all over all the tabletops.
“Won’t know until we see it for ourselves.”
Dean shared a look with his wife. “I guess we’re going home.”
--
Bobby’s knees cracked when he climbed out of his truck. It had been a long silent ride with John. Jim would be flying in with a crate of texts he was borrowing from a friend in Maine. Liz led the way to the apartment over the little store. She went about fixing lunch and giving instructions to the bathroom and phone. Bobby watched John wander around the little room, examining the evidence of the previous years. No recognition. John had an excellent poker face and from his face, everyone would guess that he was winning but then… everyone had already seen his losing hand.
Bobby set his notebook and an armful of books on the coffee table which was nowhere near as sturdy as the shelf looked. “Maybe you should reinforce this thing with whatever’s holding that thing up.”
Dean sized up the coffee table. “If I get my hands on more lumber, I might just make a new one.”
“Don’t go adding chores to your fix-it list until you finish painting the baby’s room.” Liz chided from the kitchen. “Your ego is really out of control, mister.”
“You’re going to make a new table?” Bobby scoffed.
“I made the shelf and the crib.” Dean puffed out his chest.
“He’s a regular handyman.” Sam rolled his eyes and sank onto the couch to resume the research. “Hunter, Builder, Candlestick maker.”
“You’re hilarious.”
“Boys.” John chided firmly but softly as he examined the pictures, some of which he was included in. Ran his hands over the shelf and felt its solid strength.
“Dad, you actually helped me put it together.” Dean added, watching his father carefully.
“It’s a good job, son.” John nodded to himself, eyes on the photo of him and this girl, Liz, sitting on a bench with the shadow of the photographer blocking the sun. Next to it, a stolen shot that John burned into his memory. He and Dean, heads ducked under the hood, grease smeared all over their arms and faces. Why couldn’t he remember that? He would. He would hold a memory like that in the middle of a fight with evil, to keep himself on the right path. Another, an expression that John knew he wore far too often. Lost in thinking about the thing that killed his Mary and staring off toward the woods. The pain was white hot in his heart again. He’d never blame Dean for it. Knew Dean needed Liz. Could see it in the way they moved around each other, looked at each other. Still, it stung.
Then he felt it. Some silent tugging of his mind. Alarms went off. Not alarms. Sirens. He did not remember leaving the living room but suddenly he was outside on the stairs, clenching the rail and staring into the woods. He heard the cocking shotguns behind him and stopped walking.
“John?” Liz. Was she crying? “What is it?”
“Siren calls.” He stated simply. There was nothing else to call them. “I think.”
“Fucking Sirens.” Dean cursed and jerked his head to Bobby, who disappeared in the house. “And here I thought it was a Succubus.”
“Maybe they aren’t all that different.” Sam muttered.
“Still begs the question of why it hasn’t killed him yet.”
“Maybe he never found it.” Liz whispered as she followed John’s gaze. She felt it, too. Something was calling… silently. “John, what do you hear?”
“Nothing.” He shook his head. “Feel it. Want to take a walk.”
“Time for more research boys.” Bobby waved a book at them. “Local lore. Anything to do with the history of those woods and who trapped whatever’s in there.”
--
John read until his eyes blurred. It was too much. The research on this thing and the research on the life he’d missed out on the last two years. Taking his whiskey bottle out to the stairs, he let the night air cool his burning head and then the whiskey warm him right back up. Missing two years of memory was discomfiting to say the least. He’d read through his journal the barest details on hunts and little to nothing on his life, but that wasn’t so unusual. The thing he’d found the most puzzling was a picture of Liz and himself; standing behind her with his arm secured across her shoulders as if he’d been pulling her away from (presumably the photographer) Dean, her hands braced on his forearm and an indulging smile on her face. They had said that he was close with Liz but he couldn’t ever imagine being this close to anyone again.
John scooted to the railing when Liz stepped out onto the landing to check on him. Silently, she descended a few steps to have a seat at his feet. She patted his shin and stared off into the woods with him. “I know that you have no reason to trust me right now but… I know you, John. I know you’re beating yourself up for letting yourself get caught up in this mess and trying to figure out the best way to fill in the gaps.” She turned up to face him. “I owe you, John. You let me keep Dean after all the fights we got in and… I’ll help them save you from whatever this is.”
“Let you?” John asked, his voice harder than he’d planned.
“I think you had spent a great number of months trying to keep us apart after you saw what took us a little longer to see… but you kept bringing him back to me.” Liz had a soft smile on her face. “Then I sort of blackmailed you into making it Dean’s decision to stay or go.”
“Dean chose to stay?”
“Dean chose to let me have my say. Then he chose to go but he brought you back with him when he came back. His excuse was that if I was going to expand the Winchester line, then it was his job to make sure that you got to see it happen.” She took a breath. “I guess it was something you and he had discussed before and he hadn’t taken it seriously because he didn’t… he didn’t ever think that he could have a family of his own.”
“He told you that?”
“Yeah. One night… he’d been drinking and you weren’t here and he looked at me like he was going to pop the question, only he didn’t. He just started talking about family and how it was the most important thing in the world for him. Above prowling for chicks, above prowling the things that went bump… above finding the demon that ripped the heart out of his family. Said that he had never known what you wanted for your boys because maybe you didn’t dare say it out loud because then anyone could use it against you. Maybe he was right.”
“Maybe he was.” John nodded. “You give him something, girl. You do. I always wondered what he would look like if he was really and truly happy and I think I see it.” Maybe it was the booze. Maybe it was injuries that he didn’t remember acquiring but John felt the tears in his eyes. “I only wish Mary could see him.”
“John, I tend to give you a lot of grief about the way that I believe you raised your family but I will be the first to admit that I can’t think of what you could have done differently.” Liz stared out into the night. “When I was 17, a friend of mine, a very close friend died. I knew, I just knew there was no way that it was an accident and everyone was telling me that he killed himself and that was just the most wrong thing in the world to me. Alex was a lot of things, least of all depressed or suicidal. I took hold of that knowledge and I didn’t let go until I found the truth…” She glanced up at him. “Avenging him was bittersweet but… that’s what I did for my friend. God save the thing that kills Dean because I loved Alex and I love his memory. Dean is so much more than that to me. I will march into Hell itself to bring him back.”
“That makes two of us.” John leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his daughter-in-law’s forehead.
“Well, it’s nice to see that I still have your blessing.”
“Well, I hope I have as nice a time getting to know you as I apparently did before.” John fished the picture out of his pocket.
She laughed when she saw it. “I wondered where this one got off to. Dean and that leather jacket. You said you’d take me as an even trade for it since apparently Dean had no intention of giving it back… that was right after Dean tried to negotiate for the Impala.” She slid her fingers over the shadow in the picture. “He never has gotten that you gave him that car years ago.”
“Yeah, I guess not.” He took the picture when she handed it back.
“I’d like us to be friends again but I know that it won’t happen overnight.” She started to stand, getting to her feet was becoming more and more awkward. “John, I just want you to keep in mind that… Dean’s taking this whole thing really hard.” When John averted his eyes, she nodded. “Yeah, I know you know. The two of you are close… but you’ve been closer. You’ve been really open with him and he’s been enjoying every minute of it. Sometimes when I’m looking at him when you’re talking and I can see the little boy before his mother died. I have never doubted your love for him, John. Never… but he has and the two of you got it all squared away and… he’s scared that it’s changed because you don’t remember.”
“I didn’t do right by my boys. I know. I should have done better but they’re grown men, now.”
“I’m really glad that you and Sam are talking. It’s been yesterday to you but years for him and I’m really glad that… It’s a good step and he needs you right now.”
“You going to come and have all these talks for them?” He joked.
“If I have to.” She used his shoulder as an anchor to get back up the stairs.
John tipped the bottle back into his mouth. The Demon. The monster in the woods. He could barely remember the time in his life when ‘the monster in the woods’ wasn’t just a story he told around the campfire for a cheap thrill. A hand on his knee, made John stop drinking for a minute. The hand slid up his thigh and then another on the other and when John looked down, there was his son’s wife. Different hair, different clothes and minus a pregnant belly.
“John.” He heard his name in her voice but her mouth didn’t move. Her hands slid up his thighs, spreading them so she could slide between. His vision zeroed in on her tongue as it slid over her full lips. “Kiss me, John, I’ve missed you.”
Leaping to his feet, John stepped inside the apartment door and slammed it shut. Breathing hard, he tried to piece together what had just happened out there. Behind him, he could feel their eyes on him. All of them, including… “Shit.”
“Dad?” Dean approached slowly.
“Something’s out there. Not a ghost.” He managed tightly. “It’s… seducing me.”
--
Mermaids. Sirens. Succubae. They all could summon men with a word, a song, a dream. Troll, imps and pixies were known for tricking drunks. John hated to admit to his flaws but he drank and he sure as hell looked at pretty women. Sue Lyle was the last time he’d gotten laid so he was probably due for a fantasy or two about the fairer sex. John knew there was more to it but he didn’t know how much more or what it would mean.
“I say silver is a solid bet.” Dean offered.
“You just like the smelting.” Sam snorted.
“Hell, if it didn’t have such a hold on the old man, I’d just say we should move the hell away from it and never look back.” Bobby groaned. “Where is he today, anyway?”
“Sleeping off his scare.” Dean gestured to the couch where his father’s leg dangled off the side.
“Guess we better figure out what it is and how to kill it quick.”
--
John stood at the tree line but did not step in. He could see his intended path almost as if he were already walking it. Could see that he would end up where he started but with none of the familiar things he had around him. Dean was gone. Sam was on the other side of the country. Then bits and pieces flashed before his eyes.
He knew that it wasn’t true but he didn’t know what else to do with the hole in his chest, growing bigger by the second. He stepped forward and kept his eye on the surrounding foliage. Pieces of his lost memory came to him as he traveled to the heart of the wood. Where something was trapped, they said. Something horribly old. Had probably been weakened in order to be trapped and had spent who knew how long recuperating in the wood. John himself had been weak and he’d probably walked right in and fed the damn thing so now it had a hold on him. Then he stopped abruptly.
There was a clearing. Small but there. There was a woman sunbathing in the sunlight coming down from the hole in the trees. She wasn’t model beautiful but held a sensual quality that instantly made John’s crotch heavy with want. He’d be infirmed if he thought she didn’t know he was there, the way she arched and stretched. He didn’t know why but he couldn’t step between the two trees that would lead to that beauty. He wanted to. He knew what she was but he wanted to anyway. One step forward and he would be in the clearing with her. That’s when he looked down and saw the glint in the sunlight. Silver. Silver spikes all around the clearing. Then he looked up again and she was staring at him. John, boy, you are in deep shit.
TBC
Liz set a bowl of food on the table. Maybe someone would eat it. She kept her distance from John but couldn’t stop watching him. He pored over the books, the fingers of his right hand rubbing over the gold ring on his left hand. His pen hooked over his middle finger until he made a note over some of Sam’s and circled some of Dean’s. Suddenly, he looked up to catch her eye. “Not hungry.”
“You are.” Liz corrected him and set a fork next to him before moving across the room again.
John read a few more sentences before he picked up the fork to eat because he was hungry but he hadn’t wanted to lose his place. Dean cleared his throat but didn’t say anything. Nobody was saying anything of relevance. Their notes clued him in loud and clear that there was a part of the story that no one was telling him. No one was explaining why there were notes on personal fantasies and why Djinn texts were even on the table.
Halfway through the bowl, he noticed something he should have noticed sooner. “Dean… where’s my journal?”
“In your bag, probably.” Liz piped up from the doorway. “I’ll go look.”
“She knows about this?” John asked quietly.
Dean looked up. “Yeah.”
“Your son’s not hunting.” John cleared his throat and turned when Liz tapped him with the journal. “Thanks.”
“Daughter. Not son.” Liz corrected. “She’s not going to hunt.” She looked to Dean. “We’ve already discussed it.” Dean reached out and tugged her into his side. “Dean, you have to tell him again.”
“Tell me what again?”
“On the way up here.” Dean averted his eyes. “We had a family meeting.” He looked to his brother. “We were all in agreement but I don’t want to spring it on you at the last minute. We’re naming her after Mom.”
John nodded, his fingers sliding over the gold ring on his left hand. “Sounds… good. Even better if we can kill the evil son of a bitch who killed her grandmother.”
“You remember anything?” Dean asked for the millionth time. “When you woke up, you seemed surprised to see me.”
“I didn’t know what was happening.” John admitted. “I didn’t know where you were.”
“So, nothing?”
“No.”
“You didn’t write anything down from all your trips, John.” Liz worded her sentence carefully. “We don’t know where you were going or what you were doing or if you were hunting anything.”
John only nodded and slipped a picture from the front pocket of his journal. It was a bad shot. Mary had always hated it but he loved it. “We’ll figure it out.”
--
Bobby turned from his books. “What kind of trees are in this wood? The wood that John was babbling about.”
Liz blinked at him. “Um… some Oak, mostly along the roads. Willows…” She turned to grab Sam’s laptop to pull up a map of the area.
“Where does he take his walks?”
“I don’t know how far he goes but I remember he was gone for hours.” Liz pulled up a satellite imagine of her little town. “See, he would disappear through here.”
“These look like elders.”
“I think so.”
“Huh.”
“What?”
“You’re right. Elders and willows and pines into the hillside but the edge is rimmed with Oak and… that looks like… Larch?”
Liz couldn’t get a good look in the satellite image and had to run out to the car. Dean met her as she was rifling through some pictures in the backseat. “They’re alternated in groups…”
“What?” Dean looked at the pictures.
“That’s a Larch… four of them, kind of close together and that’s an Oak cluster. They alternate that way all the way down the highway.” She explained as she examined the backgrounds of each picture all the way into Jim’s study. “Larch is protection against evil, right? What about oak?”
“Oak, especially white oak, is used for solidifying or fortifying a spell.” Bobby tapped the book he was reading out of. “So, the next question is what is in that wood that no one wanted getting out?”
“Bobby, it’s a big wood. Lots of trees. How sure are you that someone trapped something inside?” Dean protested.
“I’m not. Only one who knew was your daddy but he don’t know anymore.” Bobby jerked his head towards the door. “It’s all starting to add up though.”
“So… say there is something in there. It can’t get out but Dad walked into it.”
“I’d say so and he could have walked into something big.” Bobby rubbed a hand over his beard. “Who knows how long whatever it is has been in there. The spell could have weakened after all this time.”
“The treeline is pretty dense though. Looks like new trees growing in between the old trees.” Liz pointed out. “Wouldn’t that make the spell stronger.”
“Only if other trees in the protection line weren’t cut down by people who didn’t know why they were there.” Bobby rolled his eyes as if everyone should know to ask questions before chopping down any tree in the woods.
“How will we know what’s in there?” Liz gazed back at the room with the books all over all the tabletops.
“Won’t know until we see it for ourselves.”
Dean shared a look with his wife. “I guess we’re going home.”
--
Bobby’s knees cracked when he climbed out of his truck. It had been a long silent ride with John. Jim would be flying in with a crate of texts he was borrowing from a friend in Maine. Liz led the way to the apartment over the little store. She went about fixing lunch and giving instructions to the bathroom and phone. Bobby watched John wander around the little room, examining the evidence of the previous years. No recognition. John had an excellent poker face and from his face, everyone would guess that he was winning but then… everyone had already seen his losing hand.
Bobby set his notebook and an armful of books on the coffee table which was nowhere near as sturdy as the shelf looked. “Maybe you should reinforce this thing with whatever’s holding that thing up.”
Dean sized up the coffee table. “If I get my hands on more lumber, I might just make a new one.”
“Don’t go adding chores to your fix-it list until you finish painting the baby’s room.” Liz chided from the kitchen. “Your ego is really out of control, mister.”
“You’re going to make a new table?” Bobby scoffed.
“I made the shelf and the crib.” Dean puffed out his chest.
“He’s a regular handyman.” Sam rolled his eyes and sank onto the couch to resume the research. “Hunter, Builder, Candlestick maker.”
“You’re hilarious.”
“Boys.” John chided firmly but softly as he examined the pictures, some of which he was included in. Ran his hands over the shelf and felt its solid strength.
“Dad, you actually helped me put it together.” Dean added, watching his father carefully.
“It’s a good job, son.” John nodded to himself, eyes on the photo of him and this girl, Liz, sitting on a bench with the shadow of the photographer blocking the sun. Next to it, a stolen shot that John burned into his memory. He and Dean, heads ducked under the hood, grease smeared all over their arms and faces. Why couldn’t he remember that? He would. He would hold a memory like that in the middle of a fight with evil, to keep himself on the right path. Another, an expression that John knew he wore far too often. Lost in thinking about the thing that killed his Mary and staring off toward the woods. The pain was white hot in his heart again. He’d never blame Dean for it. Knew Dean needed Liz. Could see it in the way they moved around each other, looked at each other. Still, it stung.
Then he felt it. Some silent tugging of his mind. Alarms went off. Not alarms. Sirens. He did not remember leaving the living room but suddenly he was outside on the stairs, clenching the rail and staring into the woods. He heard the cocking shotguns behind him and stopped walking.
“John?” Liz. Was she crying? “What is it?”
“Siren calls.” He stated simply. There was nothing else to call them. “I think.”
“Fucking Sirens.” Dean cursed and jerked his head to Bobby, who disappeared in the house. “And here I thought it was a Succubus.”
“Maybe they aren’t all that different.” Sam muttered.
“Still begs the question of why it hasn’t killed him yet.”
“Maybe he never found it.” Liz whispered as she followed John’s gaze. She felt it, too. Something was calling… silently. “John, what do you hear?”
“Nothing.” He shook his head. “Feel it. Want to take a walk.”
“Time for more research boys.” Bobby waved a book at them. “Local lore. Anything to do with the history of those woods and who trapped whatever’s in there.”
--
John read until his eyes blurred. It was too much. The research on this thing and the research on the life he’d missed out on the last two years. Taking his whiskey bottle out to the stairs, he let the night air cool his burning head and then the whiskey warm him right back up. Missing two years of memory was discomfiting to say the least. He’d read through his journal the barest details on hunts and little to nothing on his life, but that wasn’t so unusual. The thing he’d found the most puzzling was a picture of Liz and himself; standing behind her with his arm secured across her shoulders as if he’d been pulling her away from (presumably the photographer) Dean, her hands braced on his forearm and an indulging smile on her face. They had said that he was close with Liz but he couldn’t ever imagine being this close to anyone again.
John scooted to the railing when Liz stepped out onto the landing to check on him. Silently, she descended a few steps to have a seat at his feet. She patted his shin and stared off into the woods with him. “I know that you have no reason to trust me right now but… I know you, John. I know you’re beating yourself up for letting yourself get caught up in this mess and trying to figure out the best way to fill in the gaps.” She turned up to face him. “I owe you, John. You let me keep Dean after all the fights we got in and… I’ll help them save you from whatever this is.”
“Let you?” John asked, his voice harder than he’d planned.
“I think you had spent a great number of months trying to keep us apart after you saw what took us a little longer to see… but you kept bringing him back to me.” Liz had a soft smile on her face. “Then I sort of blackmailed you into making it Dean’s decision to stay or go.”
“Dean chose to stay?”
“Dean chose to let me have my say. Then he chose to go but he brought you back with him when he came back. His excuse was that if I was going to expand the Winchester line, then it was his job to make sure that you got to see it happen.” She took a breath. “I guess it was something you and he had discussed before and he hadn’t taken it seriously because he didn’t… he didn’t ever think that he could have a family of his own.”
“He told you that?”
“Yeah. One night… he’d been drinking and you weren’t here and he looked at me like he was going to pop the question, only he didn’t. He just started talking about family and how it was the most important thing in the world for him. Above prowling for chicks, above prowling the things that went bump… above finding the demon that ripped the heart out of his family. Said that he had never known what you wanted for your boys because maybe you didn’t dare say it out loud because then anyone could use it against you. Maybe he was right.”
“Maybe he was.” John nodded. “You give him something, girl. You do. I always wondered what he would look like if he was really and truly happy and I think I see it.” Maybe it was the booze. Maybe it was injuries that he didn’t remember acquiring but John felt the tears in his eyes. “I only wish Mary could see him.”
“John, I tend to give you a lot of grief about the way that I believe you raised your family but I will be the first to admit that I can’t think of what you could have done differently.” Liz stared out into the night. “When I was 17, a friend of mine, a very close friend died. I knew, I just knew there was no way that it was an accident and everyone was telling me that he killed himself and that was just the most wrong thing in the world to me. Alex was a lot of things, least of all depressed or suicidal. I took hold of that knowledge and I didn’t let go until I found the truth…” She glanced up at him. “Avenging him was bittersweet but… that’s what I did for my friend. God save the thing that kills Dean because I loved Alex and I love his memory. Dean is so much more than that to me. I will march into Hell itself to bring him back.”
“That makes two of us.” John leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his daughter-in-law’s forehead.
“Well, it’s nice to see that I still have your blessing.”
“Well, I hope I have as nice a time getting to know you as I apparently did before.” John fished the picture out of his pocket.
She laughed when she saw it. “I wondered where this one got off to. Dean and that leather jacket. You said you’d take me as an even trade for it since apparently Dean had no intention of giving it back… that was right after Dean tried to negotiate for the Impala.” She slid her fingers over the shadow in the picture. “He never has gotten that you gave him that car years ago.”
“Yeah, I guess not.” He took the picture when she handed it back.
“I’d like us to be friends again but I know that it won’t happen overnight.” She started to stand, getting to her feet was becoming more and more awkward. “John, I just want you to keep in mind that… Dean’s taking this whole thing really hard.” When John averted his eyes, she nodded. “Yeah, I know you know. The two of you are close… but you’ve been closer. You’ve been really open with him and he’s been enjoying every minute of it. Sometimes when I’m looking at him when you’re talking and I can see the little boy before his mother died. I have never doubted your love for him, John. Never… but he has and the two of you got it all squared away and… he’s scared that it’s changed because you don’t remember.”
“I didn’t do right by my boys. I know. I should have done better but they’re grown men, now.”
“I’m really glad that you and Sam are talking. It’s been yesterday to you but years for him and I’m really glad that… It’s a good step and he needs you right now.”
“You going to come and have all these talks for them?” He joked.
“If I have to.” She used his shoulder as an anchor to get back up the stairs.
John tipped the bottle back into his mouth. The Demon. The monster in the woods. He could barely remember the time in his life when ‘the monster in the woods’ wasn’t just a story he told around the campfire for a cheap thrill. A hand on his knee, made John stop drinking for a minute. The hand slid up his thigh and then another on the other and when John looked down, there was his son’s wife. Different hair, different clothes and minus a pregnant belly.
“John.” He heard his name in her voice but her mouth didn’t move. Her hands slid up his thighs, spreading them so she could slide between. His vision zeroed in on her tongue as it slid over her full lips. “Kiss me, John, I’ve missed you.”
Leaping to his feet, John stepped inside the apartment door and slammed it shut. Breathing hard, he tried to piece together what had just happened out there. Behind him, he could feel their eyes on him. All of them, including… “Shit.”
“Dad?” Dean approached slowly.
“Something’s out there. Not a ghost.” He managed tightly. “It’s… seducing me.”
--
Mermaids. Sirens. Succubae. They all could summon men with a word, a song, a dream. Troll, imps and pixies were known for tricking drunks. John hated to admit to his flaws but he drank and he sure as hell looked at pretty women. Sue Lyle was the last time he’d gotten laid so he was probably due for a fantasy or two about the fairer sex. John knew there was more to it but he didn’t know how much more or what it would mean.
“I say silver is a solid bet.” Dean offered.
“You just like the smelting.” Sam snorted.
“Hell, if it didn’t have such a hold on the old man, I’d just say we should move the hell away from it and never look back.” Bobby groaned. “Where is he today, anyway?”
“Sleeping off his scare.” Dean gestured to the couch where his father’s leg dangled off the side.
“Guess we better figure out what it is and how to kill it quick.”
--
John stood at the tree line but did not step in. He could see his intended path almost as if he were already walking it. Could see that he would end up where he started but with none of the familiar things he had around him. Dean was gone. Sam was on the other side of the country. Then bits and pieces flashed before his eyes.
He knew that it wasn’t true but he didn’t know what else to do with the hole in his chest, growing bigger by the second. He stepped forward and kept his eye on the surrounding foliage. Pieces of his lost memory came to him as he traveled to the heart of the wood. Where something was trapped, they said. Something horribly old. Had probably been weakened in order to be trapped and had spent who knew how long recuperating in the wood. John himself had been weak and he’d probably walked right in and fed the damn thing so now it had a hold on him. Then he stopped abruptly.
There was a clearing. Small but there. There was a woman sunbathing in the sunlight coming down from the hole in the trees. She wasn’t model beautiful but held a sensual quality that instantly made John’s crotch heavy with want. He’d be infirmed if he thought she didn’t know he was there, the way she arched and stretched. He didn’t know why but he couldn’t step between the two trees that would lead to that beauty. He wanted to. He knew what she was but he wanted to anyway. One step forward and he would be in the clearing with her. That’s when he looked down and saw the glint in the sunlight. Silver. Silver spikes all around the clearing. Then he looked up again and she was staring at him. John, boy, you are in deep shit.
TBC
Re: Time Has Come Today (SPN/ROS, UC, AU, MA) Part 25 10/24
Part 26
“She’s kept there by a ring of silver stakes.”
“I knew it. You owe me a Benjamin.” Dean smacked his brother.
John rolled his eyes. “Boys. Pay attention. I don’t think that was her true form. I think it was a show.” He cut his hand through the air at Dean before his eldest could get the words out. “I still don’t know what she is. It. Whatever.”
“Let’s hope it’s a she. I don’t want to think about you swinging that way.” Dean just couldn’t hold his tongue.
“Shut up, you idjit.” Bobby swatted the boy with his hat.
“So, when we pack the saddlebags, what will we take?” Sam cut in. “Silver? Bullets? Fire?”
“They had enough silver to choke an elephant. I’m thinking it won’t kill her.” John braced himself against the door frame. “If they could make the silver stakes, I’m sure they had fire. They trapped her for a reason.” He looked around the room. “I don’t know how long she’s been there but they were not able to kill her.”
“I’m hoping the preacher has more luck when he gets here.” Bobby snorted. “I got nothing.”
“Pastor Jim is stuck because of a freak snow storm.” Sam volunteered. “He was thinking Succubus but like a really old one.”
“How old?” Liz asked just to get the question out there.
“Like… maybe… before men were in triple digits old.” He looked to his father and Bobby. “I mean… like maybe half-blood demon old.”
“And Jim has those texts.” John cursed under his breath.
“Those would be the ones.” Bobby nodded.
“I don’t understand. If there was something like this, why isn’t there any record of it?” Liz shook her head. “I mean. Surely someone would have passed the information down so that it would never be let out.”
“Normally, it would be. I’ve spent all day with the maps and on the phone with preservationists. The town’s old but not ancient.” He flicked a picture that John drew of the stakes. “These look like they were done 17th century or so, maybe before. I’m thinking she didn’t always live here, that’s just where she got trapped.” Bobby tsked under his breath. “But if this thing is old as we think, so’s her game and her friends. Maybe right after she was trapped, one of her friends offed the keepers to let her out or to keep her there. Who knows why that thing’s really in there.”
“There’s no local lore.” John shook his head.
“No, you read all there was.” Liz shrugged. “Two years ago.”
“Who found it?”
“Well, I did.”
“I’m on it.” Dean made for the door.
“What?” Liz turned to watch him go.
“When you went looking for the lore, Liz, did you know what you know now?” Sam asked gently.
“Well, no…”
“Then you probably ruled out some books that you might have thought were trash.”
“Oh.”
--
“Who am I?” She whispered. “Who do I look like?”
“I’d say my son’s wife, about six months ago.”
“You like to look at her John. Come in here and I’ll let you do more than look.”
“Who are you?” John asked again.
“Oh, I’ve been around. You’ve met some of my daughters, John.” She smiled. “Jenny, Peg, Lorelei… oh, I’ve had so many.” Her smile grew. “But you’ve also known my mother, haven’t you… What did you call out in the middle of the night? Soft, so your boys couldn’t hear you taking a woman who wasn’t their mother? Sue?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Dear Susan? The demon you took to bed, John. She’s so old the mountains are newborns to her.” She licked her lips. “Shame about the body you killed. Mom just… flew away. Found a new body. She always does. Lucky girl.”
“What’s her name?”
“Oh no. I know about you and your habit of killing my loves… Stay with me, John. No more killing, hunting. Just me in your arms for all eternity.”
John swore he could feel her hand along his shoulder though about six yards lay between them. Felt the hand smooth down his chest and cup his crotch.
John sat up with a cold sweat dripping down his face, drenching his clothes. He lay in his son’s living room, sunset washing him in reds and oranges. Concerned faces all around. “It’s a demon… or demon-spawn.”
“How do you know?”
“She told me.”
Sam walked into his father’s line of sight. “Why would she do that?”
“She’s taunting me. Said I’d met her daughters… Jenny, Peg and Lorelei.” John ran the names through his head, then tried running the names of evil bitches through his head. “Jenny Greenteeth, Peg Powler.”
“Shit. Jenny, Peg and Lorelei.” Bobby ran a hand over his head. Nix, nymph, whatever. Evil bitches.
Dean held up a book. “The local book of the dead. It’s actually from a few towns over but I think that she lured them out here and snuffed them and then the townsfolk had to fight fire with magic.”
“What’s it say?” John pressed.
“Well, the death count in men was pretty damn high after the white settlements took a strong hold. I think they brought it with them.” He handed over the book. “The ages of the men were… well.”
“Why?” John pondered.
“Early death rates.” Liz offered. “The settlers didn’t live as long as we do now. I mean… 50 was ancient. All the elders were rarely into their sixties.”
“So… it likes seasoned and experienced men.” Sam made a face. “How many of these men were fathers?”
“All of them.”
“Her daughters.” John cursed to himself. “She’s a breeder.”
“Whoa… like?” Sam blinked at his father. “You mean… really?”
“Dude, really.” Then Dean stared at his father. “You don’t think you…”
“I think that was her plan. I couldn’t tell you if it worked.” John shook his head.
“We need the preacher.” Bobby cut them off before Liz could get her question out.
--
John was starting to get used to the dreams. At least he hoped it was a dream. He just had to make sure that he kept the damn thing interested without stepping over the silver ring. John knew that he couldn’t trust any of his instincts. This bitch had insinuated herself into his psyche. He had thought, for a moment, that Liz was behind the whole thing. Then he had seen it, had felt it. The image of desire was part of the thrall of the beast. He’d never admit it out loud but his son’s wife was a beautiful woman. Given that she was his son’s wife, would cause him the most torment as the object of his lust. That was the object after all. Torment.
John stared at her. She taunted him with big doe eyes and flashes of tantalizing flesh but she knew when to bring out the big guns.
“Maybe the new is not what you really want, John.” She purred. “She’s a pretty girl but she is just a girl. Maybe what you want is a woman.” Suddenly, where Liz stood, there was Ellen. “I always did find you kind of handsome, John. Bill was even concerned about it from time to time.”
It didn’t fit. Ellen Harvelle was a fine woman but this kind of sensuality was never anything John had associated with the dead hunter’s wife. Then it hit him. “Mary…. I need Mary.”
“Oh, John… she’s no fun.” Ellen’s smoky voice told him. “She’s saved herself for you, married you, bore you two strapping boys… Time to pick up someone new.”
“I’ll walk in, willingly.” John told it. “I will do… anything you want… but you have to be Mary.”
She huffed. It was kind of funny, watching Ellen huff. She flicked her hand at him.
Then John woke up where he’d been having his breakfast. “Betrayal.”
“What?” Bobby sat up. He hadn’t even noticed that John had fallen asleep. Hell, maybe he’d fallen asleep himself.
“That’s what it feeds off of.” John grimaced when he swallowed down his cool coffee. He took the opportunity to check for ears while he refreshed his cup. “You know something you’re not telling me but I don’t know who you’re protecting, Bobby.”
“Well, maybe it shouldn’t be said to some people.”
“Like maybe Dean and his wife?”
“Like maybe them.” Bobby agreed.
“Shit, Bobby, what did I tell you?” John ran a hand over his face.
“Not what you said, more like how you was acting. Maybe some things that maybe Dean said about how you was acting. But Dean don’t know what I know.”
“Which is what?” John turned sad eyes on his friend. “I was fantasizing about that little girl?”
“Something along those lines.”
“Jesus, Bobby. It keeps calling me in my sleep. Looking like her but not the way she is now… the way she probably was when we first got here.” He sighed and nearly burned his mouth with a fresh mouthful of coffee. “It’s trying to keep my attention. Turned into another woman I know, thinking I’d prefer someone older right now.”
“And.”
“Anyone but her.” John kept the name to himself because he had the one, maybe two, dreams about her in the past. “I asked it to be Mary.”
“Shit, John.” Bobby cursed and lost his appetite.
“She couldn’t do it. Starting making excuses about why not but she never did it. She… dismissed me.”
“What kind of excuses?”
“That… Mary’d never been with anyone but me. She married me. She’d had my boys… Said that Mary was no fun.”
“So, betrayal, huh. Nice little torment to feast on.”
“We need a weapon, Bobby. Silver is holding its body in place. Woods is limiting her range but she’s getting stronger.”
“We’ll find something, John.”
--
Jim arrived with the cold still floating off his clothes and in the crate he carried, he carried their hope. John watched as Dean unloaded the crate which did not contain a single book but instead an arsenal that the Vatican was sure to be missing. He was stunned by a particularly angry spear. Dean lifted it to the light. It had attracted his boy as well.
Jim opened his mouth to explain but John waved his hand at him to silence him. “Dean, tell me about what you’re holding.”
“It’s crude.” Dean lifted his eyes but not his head, ready for this pop quiz. “It’s unpolished silver, I can smell it. Pre-Christian.”
“More.” John demanded.
Dean ran his tongue over his teeth, lowered his eyes to study the weapon in his hands. “It’s got wood splinters fixed into it, stained with blood. Don’t know what kind of blood. It’s hefty. It’ll take force and aim to hit home. Have to get pretty close.” He twisted it between his hands to get a solid grip. He struck out with it, adjusted it and tried again. “Pretty ancient. Don’t think the Romans built this thing. I think they found it and kept it.”
Jim stared at the boy and crossed his arms. “You’ve been reading. I thought you said that reading was for kitty-cats.”
“That’s not what I said.” Dean lowered his head, mouth turning up at the corners.
“Dean!” Liz gasped in horror at her husband actually saying that to a priest.
“Oh, my child, he’s said way worse in my presence.” Jim walked across the room and took the spear from Dean’s hands. “This was found and smuggled out of Rome in the last century. Its origins are unknown and the carbon dating makes this weapon just older than man-made fire.”
“I thought you said that evolution was against God, Pastor Jim.” Sam leapt in.
“Never you mind what I said before.” Jim tilted the spear to show off the wood splinters. “These… never decay. They never fall out. Never dry out. It’s old world magic for old world monsters.”
“That is just… awesomeness.” Dean took the spear back. “Bet this things kills just about anything.” He hefted it between his hands before tossing it across the room to his father.
John caught it with one hand, then twirled it until it fit to his hands. His head began to ache, which he took as a sign that it was the right weapon. “She’s ringed in Silver and in Wood, Preacher.”
“The settlers didn’t have my connections.” Jim reminded John. “Who does she look like?”
“Everyone I would avoid.” John answered simply.
“We still need some back up incantations to make sure she’s weak enough when we stage our attack.” Bobby cautioned, the look in John’s eye making him nervous.
“Everyone get some shut eye. We’re hitting the books nice and early. I want her dead by midnight.”
--
Frosted breath panted between the trees as John made his way over fallen logs. Spear at his back, he marched onward. Despite the cold, it was a scantily clad young woman sitting in the clearing. Leaning on the trees, he stared. She smiled. “I knew you’d come to me, John.” She crossed her arms to rub for warmth. “It’s so cold… I need a kiss to warm me up.”
John took a deep breath, cold burning his lungs. It was snowing and the forecast was calling for a blizzard. If he got stuck, he might not find his way back before the worst of it hit. If he turned back now, he might make it. If he waited for the cover of night and the aid of his friends and his boys, they could have this over with in just two more days.
“John, I’m so cold.”
John stepped over the silver spikes and the stench of dead wood met his nose before he could step back. The arms wrapped around him before he could take another breath. Decay. Death. Evil.
--
Liz frowned as the hot water kettle whistled. Nothing. She felt nothing. The silent tugging was gone. Dean bent his head over a book. Sam was asleep on top of his. Bobby was snoring on a cot in the baby’s room. Jim had gone to shower. “Dean… where’s John?”
TBC
AN: And now that I've really got your attention, I would like to announce that I'm going out of town in about 4 hours. Will I leave you hanging? Hopefully, not for too long. Will I be out of contact? Yes, absolutely. Will I allow the woods to devour John's soul? I guess that only time will tell. I have one more secret about this story but I feel if I reveal it, I will be murdered so, I will hold onto it until my return. Spleen juice anyone?
“She’s kept there by a ring of silver stakes.”
“I knew it. You owe me a Benjamin.” Dean smacked his brother.
John rolled his eyes. “Boys. Pay attention. I don’t think that was her true form. I think it was a show.” He cut his hand through the air at Dean before his eldest could get the words out. “I still don’t know what she is. It. Whatever.”
“Let’s hope it’s a she. I don’t want to think about you swinging that way.” Dean just couldn’t hold his tongue.
“Shut up, you idjit.” Bobby swatted the boy with his hat.
“So, when we pack the saddlebags, what will we take?” Sam cut in. “Silver? Bullets? Fire?”
“They had enough silver to choke an elephant. I’m thinking it won’t kill her.” John braced himself against the door frame. “If they could make the silver stakes, I’m sure they had fire. They trapped her for a reason.” He looked around the room. “I don’t know how long she’s been there but they were not able to kill her.”
“I’m hoping the preacher has more luck when he gets here.” Bobby snorted. “I got nothing.”
“Pastor Jim is stuck because of a freak snow storm.” Sam volunteered. “He was thinking Succubus but like a really old one.”
“How old?” Liz asked just to get the question out there.
“Like… maybe… before men were in triple digits old.” He looked to his father and Bobby. “I mean… like maybe half-blood demon old.”
“And Jim has those texts.” John cursed under his breath.
“Those would be the ones.” Bobby nodded.
“I don’t understand. If there was something like this, why isn’t there any record of it?” Liz shook her head. “I mean. Surely someone would have passed the information down so that it would never be let out.”
“Normally, it would be. I’ve spent all day with the maps and on the phone with preservationists. The town’s old but not ancient.” He flicked a picture that John drew of the stakes. “These look like they were done 17th century or so, maybe before. I’m thinking she didn’t always live here, that’s just where she got trapped.” Bobby tsked under his breath. “But if this thing is old as we think, so’s her game and her friends. Maybe right after she was trapped, one of her friends offed the keepers to let her out or to keep her there. Who knows why that thing’s really in there.”
“There’s no local lore.” John shook his head.
“No, you read all there was.” Liz shrugged. “Two years ago.”
“Who found it?”
“Well, I did.”
“I’m on it.” Dean made for the door.
“What?” Liz turned to watch him go.
“When you went looking for the lore, Liz, did you know what you know now?” Sam asked gently.
“Well, no…”
“Then you probably ruled out some books that you might have thought were trash.”
“Oh.”
--
“Who am I?” She whispered. “Who do I look like?”
“I’d say my son’s wife, about six months ago.”
“You like to look at her John. Come in here and I’ll let you do more than look.”
“Who are you?” John asked again.
“Oh, I’ve been around. You’ve met some of my daughters, John.” She smiled. “Jenny, Peg, Lorelei… oh, I’ve had so many.” Her smile grew. “But you’ve also known my mother, haven’t you… What did you call out in the middle of the night? Soft, so your boys couldn’t hear you taking a woman who wasn’t their mother? Sue?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Dear Susan? The demon you took to bed, John. She’s so old the mountains are newborns to her.” She licked her lips. “Shame about the body you killed. Mom just… flew away. Found a new body. She always does. Lucky girl.”
“What’s her name?”
“Oh no. I know about you and your habit of killing my loves… Stay with me, John. No more killing, hunting. Just me in your arms for all eternity.”
John swore he could feel her hand along his shoulder though about six yards lay between them. Felt the hand smooth down his chest and cup his crotch.
John sat up with a cold sweat dripping down his face, drenching his clothes. He lay in his son’s living room, sunset washing him in reds and oranges. Concerned faces all around. “It’s a demon… or demon-spawn.”
“How do you know?”
“She told me.”
Sam walked into his father’s line of sight. “Why would she do that?”
“She’s taunting me. Said I’d met her daughters… Jenny, Peg and Lorelei.” John ran the names through his head, then tried running the names of evil bitches through his head. “Jenny Greenteeth, Peg Powler.”
“Shit. Jenny, Peg and Lorelei.” Bobby ran a hand over his head. Nix, nymph, whatever. Evil bitches.
Dean held up a book. “The local book of the dead. It’s actually from a few towns over but I think that she lured them out here and snuffed them and then the townsfolk had to fight fire with magic.”
“What’s it say?” John pressed.
“Well, the death count in men was pretty damn high after the white settlements took a strong hold. I think they brought it with them.” He handed over the book. “The ages of the men were… well.”
“Why?” John pondered.
“Early death rates.” Liz offered. “The settlers didn’t live as long as we do now. I mean… 50 was ancient. All the elders were rarely into their sixties.”
“So… it likes seasoned and experienced men.” Sam made a face. “How many of these men were fathers?”
“All of them.”
“Her daughters.” John cursed to himself. “She’s a breeder.”
“Whoa… like?” Sam blinked at his father. “You mean… really?”
“Dude, really.” Then Dean stared at his father. “You don’t think you…”
“I think that was her plan. I couldn’t tell you if it worked.” John shook his head.
“We need the preacher.” Bobby cut them off before Liz could get her question out.
--
John was starting to get used to the dreams. At least he hoped it was a dream. He just had to make sure that he kept the damn thing interested without stepping over the silver ring. John knew that he couldn’t trust any of his instincts. This bitch had insinuated herself into his psyche. He had thought, for a moment, that Liz was behind the whole thing. Then he had seen it, had felt it. The image of desire was part of the thrall of the beast. He’d never admit it out loud but his son’s wife was a beautiful woman. Given that she was his son’s wife, would cause him the most torment as the object of his lust. That was the object after all. Torment.
John stared at her. She taunted him with big doe eyes and flashes of tantalizing flesh but she knew when to bring out the big guns.
“Maybe the new is not what you really want, John.” She purred. “She’s a pretty girl but she is just a girl. Maybe what you want is a woman.” Suddenly, where Liz stood, there was Ellen. “I always did find you kind of handsome, John. Bill was even concerned about it from time to time.”
It didn’t fit. Ellen Harvelle was a fine woman but this kind of sensuality was never anything John had associated with the dead hunter’s wife. Then it hit him. “Mary…. I need Mary.”
“Oh, John… she’s no fun.” Ellen’s smoky voice told him. “She’s saved herself for you, married you, bore you two strapping boys… Time to pick up someone new.”
“I’ll walk in, willingly.” John told it. “I will do… anything you want… but you have to be Mary.”
She huffed. It was kind of funny, watching Ellen huff. She flicked her hand at him.
Then John woke up where he’d been having his breakfast. “Betrayal.”
“What?” Bobby sat up. He hadn’t even noticed that John had fallen asleep. Hell, maybe he’d fallen asleep himself.
“That’s what it feeds off of.” John grimaced when he swallowed down his cool coffee. He took the opportunity to check for ears while he refreshed his cup. “You know something you’re not telling me but I don’t know who you’re protecting, Bobby.”
“Well, maybe it shouldn’t be said to some people.”
“Like maybe Dean and his wife?”
“Like maybe them.” Bobby agreed.
“Shit, Bobby, what did I tell you?” John ran a hand over his face.
“Not what you said, more like how you was acting. Maybe some things that maybe Dean said about how you was acting. But Dean don’t know what I know.”
“Which is what?” John turned sad eyes on his friend. “I was fantasizing about that little girl?”
“Something along those lines.”
“Jesus, Bobby. It keeps calling me in my sleep. Looking like her but not the way she is now… the way she probably was when we first got here.” He sighed and nearly burned his mouth with a fresh mouthful of coffee. “It’s trying to keep my attention. Turned into another woman I know, thinking I’d prefer someone older right now.”
“And.”
“Anyone but her.” John kept the name to himself because he had the one, maybe two, dreams about her in the past. “I asked it to be Mary.”
“Shit, John.” Bobby cursed and lost his appetite.
“She couldn’t do it. Starting making excuses about why not but she never did it. She… dismissed me.”
“What kind of excuses?”
“That… Mary’d never been with anyone but me. She married me. She’d had my boys… Said that Mary was no fun.”
“So, betrayal, huh. Nice little torment to feast on.”
“We need a weapon, Bobby. Silver is holding its body in place. Woods is limiting her range but she’s getting stronger.”
“We’ll find something, John.”
--
Jim arrived with the cold still floating off his clothes and in the crate he carried, he carried their hope. John watched as Dean unloaded the crate which did not contain a single book but instead an arsenal that the Vatican was sure to be missing. He was stunned by a particularly angry spear. Dean lifted it to the light. It had attracted his boy as well.
Jim opened his mouth to explain but John waved his hand at him to silence him. “Dean, tell me about what you’re holding.”
“It’s crude.” Dean lifted his eyes but not his head, ready for this pop quiz. “It’s unpolished silver, I can smell it. Pre-Christian.”
“More.” John demanded.
Dean ran his tongue over his teeth, lowered his eyes to study the weapon in his hands. “It’s got wood splinters fixed into it, stained with blood. Don’t know what kind of blood. It’s hefty. It’ll take force and aim to hit home. Have to get pretty close.” He twisted it between his hands to get a solid grip. He struck out with it, adjusted it and tried again. “Pretty ancient. Don’t think the Romans built this thing. I think they found it and kept it.”
Jim stared at the boy and crossed his arms. “You’ve been reading. I thought you said that reading was for kitty-cats.”
“That’s not what I said.” Dean lowered his head, mouth turning up at the corners.
“Dean!” Liz gasped in horror at her husband actually saying that to a priest.
“Oh, my child, he’s said way worse in my presence.” Jim walked across the room and took the spear from Dean’s hands. “This was found and smuggled out of Rome in the last century. Its origins are unknown and the carbon dating makes this weapon just older than man-made fire.”
“I thought you said that evolution was against God, Pastor Jim.” Sam leapt in.
“Never you mind what I said before.” Jim tilted the spear to show off the wood splinters. “These… never decay. They never fall out. Never dry out. It’s old world magic for old world monsters.”
“That is just… awesomeness.” Dean took the spear back. “Bet this things kills just about anything.” He hefted it between his hands before tossing it across the room to his father.
John caught it with one hand, then twirled it until it fit to his hands. His head began to ache, which he took as a sign that it was the right weapon. “She’s ringed in Silver and in Wood, Preacher.”
“The settlers didn’t have my connections.” Jim reminded John. “Who does she look like?”
“Everyone I would avoid.” John answered simply.
“We still need some back up incantations to make sure she’s weak enough when we stage our attack.” Bobby cautioned, the look in John’s eye making him nervous.
“Everyone get some shut eye. We’re hitting the books nice and early. I want her dead by midnight.”
--
Frosted breath panted between the trees as John made his way over fallen logs. Spear at his back, he marched onward. Despite the cold, it was a scantily clad young woman sitting in the clearing. Leaning on the trees, he stared. She smiled. “I knew you’d come to me, John.” She crossed her arms to rub for warmth. “It’s so cold… I need a kiss to warm me up.”
John took a deep breath, cold burning his lungs. It was snowing and the forecast was calling for a blizzard. If he got stuck, he might not find his way back before the worst of it hit. If he turned back now, he might make it. If he waited for the cover of night and the aid of his friends and his boys, they could have this over with in just two more days.
“John, I’m so cold.”
John stepped over the silver spikes and the stench of dead wood met his nose before he could step back. The arms wrapped around him before he could take another breath. Decay. Death. Evil.
--
Liz frowned as the hot water kettle whistled. Nothing. She felt nothing. The silent tugging was gone. Dean bent his head over a book. Sam was asleep on top of his. Bobby was snoring on a cot in the baby’s room. Jim had gone to shower. “Dean… where’s John?”
TBC
AN: And now that I've really got your attention, I would like to announce that I'm going out of town in about 4 hours. Will I leave you hanging? Hopefully, not for too long. Will I be out of contact? Yes, absolutely. Will I allow the woods to devour John's soul? I guess that only time will tell. I have one more secret about this story but I feel if I reveal it, I will be murdered so, I will hold onto it until my return. Spleen juice anyone?
Re: Time Has Come Today (SPN/ROS,UC,AU,MA)Part 27 10/26 COMPLETE
Part 27
In the end, Sam stayed behind with Liz. Dean led the march into the wood. The tracks were all but covered by the snow, which was falling faster and faster. Bobby brought up the rear, a roll of twine in his hands, giving slack when needed, their only way to be sure they didn’t get lost themselves.
Dean carried his second choice weapon from Pastor Jim’s box. A slender silver blade with a wicked edge, blessed by forty virgins on mount… whatever the preacher had said. Whatever the ritual, it would be his best friend until he got his father back. Pastor Jim kept up a litany of Latin as they pressed forward. The stench of rot hit them like a wall. Dean turned to his companions. “I think we’re headed the right way.”
Who knew how long John had been gone when they’d realized he’d taken off without them. Who knew what kind of provisions he’d packed. Who knew what they would find, if they found anything at all. It had been four hours in bad weather when Dean realized they’d have to turn back or be lost to the blizzard. Then he smelled smoke. Death and rot and smoke.
“Dean.” Bobby’s voice was thick with warning. Something was moving.
Raising the blade, Dean took a yard at a time to the left of the movement. Then he stilled as he saw what it was that moved in jerky unnatural patterns. “Dad.”
“Jesus Christ.” Bobby breathed.
John Winchester stood naked, bloody and nearly frozen in the middle of a clearing. Silver spikes in a perfect and unbroken ring surrounded dead earth. Trees grew just outside the ring but nothing inside. The spear stood upright in the center of a smoldering pile of disgusting something. Dean couldn’t tell what it had been before.
“John?” Pastor Jim approached slowly.
John’s head tilted just a bit. “She’s weakest just before she feeds.” He stared straight ahead, unseeing. “Used a whole bottle of lighter fluid. She didn’t flame but she burned. A whole bag of salt.”
Dean stepped forward and yanked the spear from the earth. It sang. A clear blue note straight from Heaven… if that existed. Not a scratch on it. Not a scorch on it. The steaming carcass collapsed in on itself in a flurry of embers, quickly doused in the falling snow. “Is it dead?”
“Come spring… maybe something will grow…” John’s words chattered through his teeth as he began to feel the cold.
“John. Take my jacket.” Bobby shucked it and reached into his bag for something, anything, to cover John. Where in the hell were his clothes?
“Come on. Let’s get back.” Dean stripped off his jeans. His thermals would have to do for the hike back. Arm supporting his father’s shaky gait, Dean lead the way, following the twine. John didn’t even shake. Just moved in unsteady steps.
Bobby looked to the pastor. “Jim? Theories?”
“We’ll wait. He’ll tell us when he’s thawed.”
“Then you don’t know him very well.”
“I know him well enough that he’ll tell somebody.
--
It wasn’t a coma but it felt the same. Hypothermia. Dean watched the doctors and nurses bring his father back from being frozen. Watched Sam hide his anger. Watched Pastor Jim and Bobby whisper in the corners. Watched Liz watching everyone else. There was really nothing anyone could do but watch and wait.
--
Sam stared at his father but didn’t attempt to help the way Dean and Liz were taking turns doing. Holding his hand and touching his face and talking to him about the good times past and the good times to come. The doctors were hopeful. The crystallization hadn’t caused too much damage. The ‘bonfire’ and the hike had done much to improve the situation from what it could have been. John might not be able to feel the tips of his fingers or toes but they wouldn’t have to come off.
--
When John finally returned to the land of the living, he didn’t want to be there. It cold and harsh and he missed his wife more than ever. The doctors said he’s going to be fine. There’s some loss of sensitivity in his extremities. He’ll learn to regulate his body temperature without relying on his instincts. When the doctors left, Dean walked in alone. “Well, your pecker didn’t fall off.”
The joke fell flat. The words wouldn’t come. ‘Thank you’ seemed lame.
Then Dean looked at him then looked away. “What happened out there, Dad? We notice you’re gone and then it takes all goddamn night to find you and when we do… Now, Bobby and I figured you used your clothes to start the fire because everything else was wet… there was so much blood. The wounds… Dad?”
John didn’t answer. How could he? Not to this son. “Dean… where’s Sammy?”
“Outside. He’s pissed off.”
“I know. I need to see him.” John cleared his throat to voice the request as an order. “I need to see him.”
Dean left and then Sam walked in alone. He pulled a chair up to the bed and stared. All attitude and broken heart and pissed off boy. Man. He was a man now. “Did you kill it?”
“Yes.”
“What did it say?”
“Nothing you and I didn’t already know.”
“Which means what? You remembered?” The room fell silent as the silence said just that. “Oh. So… you think you can fill us in on what we’re missing?”
“No.” John shook his head. “I can’t. I won’t.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Worse.” John whispered. The memories were relentless. “I spent a goodly amount of time covering for the fact that I was doing wrong. I saved your brother and dozens of other people along the way. I couldn’t ever make it right.”
“So what Bobby says is true?”
“I don’t know what he said but… he’s not one for lying.”
“What are you going to do now Dad?”
“Sam… I think I should leave for a while.”
“Just like that?”
“I need to build my strength and I need to do it somewhere your brother isn’t…. I need you to stay behind and watch out for him, Liz and the baby.”
Sam started to protest but sat up straight, shoulders squared. “Okay.”
“We’ll kill that son of a bitch but when we have our heads together. We’ll get ourselves killed the way things are right now.”
“Okay.”
--
John spent two months hunting the little things and watching out for signs of the yellow-eyed demon named Azazael. There was nothing. Word got around though. When he wandered into Harvelle’s, it was to get himself murdered and end his misery but Ellen just gave him her sad smile and reintroduced him to Joanna Beth, who had grown up just fine and too eager to follow her father into the grave.
Ellen poured him a whiskey but he sipped it. Nice and slow. She cocked her hip and cleared her throat. “John, it really is good to see you again… I heard you had some trouble with a big bad she-demon.” John only nodded. “That bad, huh… you lose one of the boys?”
“No. The boys are fine.” John stopped at that and Ellen let it be for a while.
“John… you were like family once and… it kills me to see you like this.”
“Ellen… I found places in my soul that I didn’t know existed… and they aren’t good places.” Ellen didn’t speak, just waited for the tale. “I never thought I was the type to be a dirty old man. I’ve glanced at my share of beauties of all ages but… I never figured to be hit so hard by lust that… I enjoyed it. Their youth.”
“John?”
He looked at her. “My boy Dean, he’s gotten married to a woman that woke something up in me that nearly led me to my own death and maybe the both of theirs.”
“John.”
“Leaves me open to the possibility that I might let him die so that I could be with her.”
“John, I’m sure-”
“I didn’t say I would. I said it was a possibility… I did what I could to make sure that doesn’t happen.” He took a deep shuddering breath. “I’ve been played over and over again by the things the rule the night and I’m sick of it, Ellen. I want Dean and his wife to be safe when their baby comes. I want Sam to go back to school… I wish his girlfriend was alive again. I want my Mary.” He laid his head down and wept openly, hoping it was as late as he thought it was and the bar was emptier than usual.
“Mom… what’s wrong with Uncle John?”
“Just had a close one is all, honey. Lock up. I’m going to get him into bed.”
John spent a week there. Listening to Jo’s stories of botched hunts, giving pointers when Ellen wasn’t listening. Then he knew he had to load up and head back to New York or else he’d never forgive himself for missing the birth of his first grandchild.
--
John peered into the window at the little boxes in little rows. Then he saw it. Pink with ‘Winchester, Mary’ across the end of it. John fiddled with his plastic bracelet for a moment before moving over to knock on the door. His bracelet was scanned and then he could pick up his granddaughter. She was warm and soft and the very best of her parents rolled into one. “Mary, it’s Grandpa Winchester. It’s good to finally meet you… Mary, our son done good. Married himself a good girl and look at our granddaughter.”
Dark hair on top of fair skin and John wondered at her eyes. Would they be her namesake’s or her mother’s? Would Liz’s alienness be passed on? Would the curse of the Winchester’s fate be passed on? Would she have a shot at the kind of life that John would like for his grandchild?
When Dean walked in, John didn’t hand her over. He didn’t even look up when Sam snapped off a picture. He held on until she woke up, then Dean took her to Liz’s room for feeding. Liz waved at him with a weary smile as she took her daughter into her arms. “Hey Papa Winchester.”
It was Sam who ended up sitting with John while he fought the urge to fall apart. They had six months to solve this thing. His hand on his father’s shoulder, Sam finally let himself see the father he’d denied he’d had through his teens. Dean had been right. John Winchester was indeed a family man. Loved his boys, would kill for his boys, would die for them given the opportunity.
Sam cleared his throat at long last. “Dad, if Dean was gone in that world… where was I?”
John took a deep shuddering breath and looked at his boy. “Trying to live in this world alone… and it doesn’t suit you.”
“How so?”
“I… stayed too long, Sam. I got to see that world change too much… and maybe it was all of my fears being played out but… I didn’t like the person you turned into and I don’t think you did either.” He glanced around the courtyard they had secluded themselves in. “I never wanted this for you, Sam… but I didn’t know how to give you what you wanted without feeling like you weren’t safe.”
“My whole life… I feel like you’ve been shielding me from the world and I have never understood it. These weird things kept happening like with your contacts and with Miss Lyle and I never really got it… but I’m starting to.”
“Are you?”
“I have an IQ of 135… I was bound to figure it out eventually…” Sam tried to joke but he wasn’t nearly as good as Dean was about it. “The thing that killed Mom… Jess… it wants me. I’ve been having these dreams, Dad…” He took a deep breath. “I think that if I stay here with Dean and Liz… that something bad will happen to them.”
“How do you mean?”
“I mean… I think I’m a magnet for it, Dad. I don’t want to bring it down on them. I need to get away.”
“We’ll stay awhile… I think I know what can get us out of here for a while.”
--
The diner was garish. Aliens and UFOs and kids everyfuckingwhere. John sat down at the counter and picked up a menu. He ordered something that sounded like it might be a coconut cream pie. He wished for beer but ordered a coke. Then he waited and watched. Then he paid his bill before asking to speak to the owner. A tall thin man appeared and asked if there was something wrong with the service or the food.
“No, it was all very fine but I’m told Jeff Parker owns this place.”
“That would be me.”
“Then I have something for you.” John reached into his pocket and pulled out a fat envelope. “It seems that you and I are family.”
“How’s that?” Jeff asked even as he opened the envelope and the first of many pictures showed themselves. Jeff stumbled but motioned for John to follow him. “Nancy!”
Jeff laid them on a table and spread them out, not sure where to look first. “Family, huh. So this man.”
“Is my son, her husband. And the baby is theirs, just born last month.” John held his hand out. “John Winchester.”
“Jeff Parker.” Jeff shook his hand firmly and introduced his wife when she appeared. “My wife Nancy. Nancy, this is John Winchester, Liz’s father-in-law.”
Nancy shook his hand, blinking wildly, then took to the pictures laid out on the table. “Oh my goodness, Liz.” She flipped through the pictures and held up the one with Dean and the baby. “Name?”
“His is Dean… and that’s Mary.”
Jeff took in everything he could and let Nancy ask all the important questions. “Mary… such a sweet name. How long have they been married?”
“Not long.” John nearly bit his tongue. “They… named her after Dean’s mother… she passed away when the boys were young. That’s Sam. Dean’s little brother.”
“Where is she? What happened to her first husband?”
There, John paused. “I know… a lot about why she left. She’s not coming back. She doesn’t know I’m here.” He cleared his throat and ran a hand over the beard he hadn’t shaved since waking up in the hospital four months earlier. “She’d kill me for put you two at risk but… I’m her daughter’s grandfather. I trump her. If it were my boys… I’d want the same.”
“Is… do you know about her first husband?”
“He’s alive and a pain in my son’s ass.” John confirmed. They exchanged a look before returning to examine the evidence set before them. “She’s happy and safe. Dean will see to that.”
“Thank you.” Nancy stilled the passing of photos to and fro. “John… for this… she’s our only daughter.”
“Mine, too.” John nodded to them. “I don’t have a lot of time. These are yours… I know where they keep the negatives.”
--
John steered the truck along the freeway and listened to Sam postulating on the hunt. He wanted to slap him and tell him to shut up but Sam was there. Right there and trying. Even after all this time and all that had happened. John wouldn’t risk losing him again.
“I figure it was predecessor to what we are used to fighting… like an avatar. She was more demon than anything else. Made her powerful even in her weakened state. You were injured and exhausted, I guess. Made you vulnerable is all. The drinking didn’t help I suppose. I still don’t know why it picked Liz though. Betrayal being the key and all. You had just met her.”
“I think I know.” John cleared his throat. “I was attracted to her. I didn’t want to be but I was. And once she and your brother started up… it was far, far worse that I was.”
“I guess I see that.” Sam stared at his father for the longest time. Could almost feel his shame at how he had felt. “Maybe I was mad at the position we ended up in but… I guess I understand… and I don’t blame you. Dean’s… really laid into me and he’s finally making sense.”
“That right?’
“I never wanted to see your side before and now I can’t not and I was a little shit to you all those years.”
“You were a Winchester male. It’s tough work raising a Winchester. I should know…” John tried to joke. “I didn’t get along with my dad, Sam. Don’t know why. We just didn’t get each other… It’s why I tried so hard all those years to get us common ground. Dean… was always so sure of himself in our family. He took care of us. It was easy for him to get the both of us. You and I didn’t spend too much time getting to know each other, ever. I’m afraid that I messed up the important parts.”
“Dad, missing a game or a play wasn’t it.”
“That’s not the part I was talking about.” John cut his eyes to his son. “I took care of my kids but I wasn’t focused on them. I wasn’t focused on you. I was focused on the things around you. The things coming after you. I wasted my time with you and by the time I realized that I had messed it up… and then you were gone.”
“You saying that it was just something that happened. That we just don’t get each other.”
“It means that when you were willing to show an interest in me, I was too busy doing other things… and when I needed to take an interest in you… you’d already left… years before you actually did. I held on tighter. I got meaner and you left anyway.”
“Dad… I…”
“It’s the plight of a parent, Sam. Dean’s going to learn this but I think he’ll do a better job of it than I did.”
“What makes you think that?”
“He raised you and you turned out okay.”
Sam stared at his father for the longest time. “Dad… you raised me. Dean did a lot but… Dean and I are not alike. We are not… we’re brothers and we love each other and we get the jokes because… you taught ‘em to us. You did okay… you know… considering.”
“Considering what? Brimstone and Hellfire every Thursday on cue?”
“Yeah… something like that.” Sam blinked back a tear. “Dean was right… you’ve changed and… I don’t want to fight with you anymore. I mean… if you can change, then maybe so can I.” He cleared his throat. “I know that you’re still protecting me and I’d appreciate it if you’d trust me enough to let me know what you’re protecting me from.”
“Okay… I think that you’ll never be ready for this but… you’re as ready as you’re ever going to be for it.” John lowered the radio and began to recite, from the top, all the research he’d done since Sam was six months old. All the years and sacrifices that John had made to protect his family in the interim. He snuck glances at his son and admired his concentration and his ability to sift through the information for what John could never say. For what John had always been afraid to say. That all amounted to: I loved you and your brother enough that I’ll burn in Hell to save you from the evil son of a bitch that took your mother from us.
The End
In the end, Sam stayed behind with Liz. Dean led the march into the wood. The tracks were all but covered by the snow, which was falling faster and faster. Bobby brought up the rear, a roll of twine in his hands, giving slack when needed, their only way to be sure they didn’t get lost themselves.
Dean carried his second choice weapon from Pastor Jim’s box. A slender silver blade with a wicked edge, blessed by forty virgins on mount… whatever the preacher had said. Whatever the ritual, it would be his best friend until he got his father back. Pastor Jim kept up a litany of Latin as they pressed forward. The stench of rot hit them like a wall. Dean turned to his companions. “I think we’re headed the right way.”
Who knew how long John had been gone when they’d realized he’d taken off without them. Who knew what kind of provisions he’d packed. Who knew what they would find, if they found anything at all. It had been four hours in bad weather when Dean realized they’d have to turn back or be lost to the blizzard. Then he smelled smoke. Death and rot and smoke.
“Dean.” Bobby’s voice was thick with warning. Something was moving.
Raising the blade, Dean took a yard at a time to the left of the movement. Then he stilled as he saw what it was that moved in jerky unnatural patterns. “Dad.”
“Jesus Christ.” Bobby breathed.
John Winchester stood naked, bloody and nearly frozen in the middle of a clearing. Silver spikes in a perfect and unbroken ring surrounded dead earth. Trees grew just outside the ring but nothing inside. The spear stood upright in the center of a smoldering pile of disgusting something. Dean couldn’t tell what it had been before.
“John?” Pastor Jim approached slowly.
John’s head tilted just a bit. “She’s weakest just before she feeds.” He stared straight ahead, unseeing. “Used a whole bottle of lighter fluid. She didn’t flame but she burned. A whole bag of salt.”
Dean stepped forward and yanked the spear from the earth. It sang. A clear blue note straight from Heaven… if that existed. Not a scratch on it. Not a scorch on it. The steaming carcass collapsed in on itself in a flurry of embers, quickly doused in the falling snow. “Is it dead?”
“Come spring… maybe something will grow…” John’s words chattered through his teeth as he began to feel the cold.
“John. Take my jacket.” Bobby shucked it and reached into his bag for something, anything, to cover John. Where in the hell were his clothes?
“Come on. Let’s get back.” Dean stripped off his jeans. His thermals would have to do for the hike back. Arm supporting his father’s shaky gait, Dean lead the way, following the twine. John didn’t even shake. Just moved in unsteady steps.
Bobby looked to the pastor. “Jim? Theories?”
“We’ll wait. He’ll tell us when he’s thawed.”
“Then you don’t know him very well.”
“I know him well enough that he’ll tell somebody.
--
It wasn’t a coma but it felt the same. Hypothermia. Dean watched the doctors and nurses bring his father back from being frozen. Watched Sam hide his anger. Watched Pastor Jim and Bobby whisper in the corners. Watched Liz watching everyone else. There was really nothing anyone could do but watch and wait.
--
Sam stared at his father but didn’t attempt to help the way Dean and Liz were taking turns doing. Holding his hand and touching his face and talking to him about the good times past and the good times to come. The doctors were hopeful. The crystallization hadn’t caused too much damage. The ‘bonfire’ and the hike had done much to improve the situation from what it could have been. John might not be able to feel the tips of his fingers or toes but they wouldn’t have to come off.
--
When John finally returned to the land of the living, he didn’t want to be there. It cold and harsh and he missed his wife more than ever. The doctors said he’s going to be fine. There’s some loss of sensitivity in his extremities. He’ll learn to regulate his body temperature without relying on his instincts. When the doctors left, Dean walked in alone. “Well, your pecker didn’t fall off.”
The joke fell flat. The words wouldn’t come. ‘Thank you’ seemed lame.
Then Dean looked at him then looked away. “What happened out there, Dad? We notice you’re gone and then it takes all goddamn night to find you and when we do… Now, Bobby and I figured you used your clothes to start the fire because everything else was wet… there was so much blood. The wounds… Dad?”
John didn’t answer. How could he? Not to this son. “Dean… where’s Sammy?”
“Outside. He’s pissed off.”
“I know. I need to see him.” John cleared his throat to voice the request as an order. “I need to see him.”
Dean left and then Sam walked in alone. He pulled a chair up to the bed and stared. All attitude and broken heart and pissed off boy. Man. He was a man now. “Did you kill it?”
“Yes.”
“What did it say?”
“Nothing you and I didn’t already know.”
“Which means what? You remembered?” The room fell silent as the silence said just that. “Oh. So… you think you can fill us in on what we’re missing?”
“No.” John shook his head. “I can’t. I won’t.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Worse.” John whispered. The memories were relentless. “I spent a goodly amount of time covering for the fact that I was doing wrong. I saved your brother and dozens of other people along the way. I couldn’t ever make it right.”
“So what Bobby says is true?”
“I don’t know what he said but… he’s not one for lying.”
“What are you going to do now Dad?”
“Sam… I think I should leave for a while.”
“Just like that?”
“I need to build my strength and I need to do it somewhere your brother isn’t…. I need you to stay behind and watch out for him, Liz and the baby.”
Sam started to protest but sat up straight, shoulders squared. “Okay.”
“We’ll kill that son of a bitch but when we have our heads together. We’ll get ourselves killed the way things are right now.”
“Okay.”
--
John spent two months hunting the little things and watching out for signs of the yellow-eyed demon named Azazael. There was nothing. Word got around though. When he wandered into Harvelle’s, it was to get himself murdered and end his misery but Ellen just gave him her sad smile and reintroduced him to Joanna Beth, who had grown up just fine and too eager to follow her father into the grave.
Ellen poured him a whiskey but he sipped it. Nice and slow. She cocked her hip and cleared her throat. “John, it really is good to see you again… I heard you had some trouble with a big bad she-demon.” John only nodded. “That bad, huh… you lose one of the boys?”
“No. The boys are fine.” John stopped at that and Ellen let it be for a while.
“John… you were like family once and… it kills me to see you like this.”
“Ellen… I found places in my soul that I didn’t know existed… and they aren’t good places.” Ellen didn’t speak, just waited for the tale. “I never thought I was the type to be a dirty old man. I’ve glanced at my share of beauties of all ages but… I never figured to be hit so hard by lust that… I enjoyed it. Their youth.”
“John?”
He looked at her. “My boy Dean, he’s gotten married to a woman that woke something up in me that nearly led me to my own death and maybe the both of theirs.”
“John.”
“Leaves me open to the possibility that I might let him die so that I could be with her.”
“John, I’m sure-”
“I didn’t say I would. I said it was a possibility… I did what I could to make sure that doesn’t happen.” He took a deep shuddering breath. “I’ve been played over and over again by the things the rule the night and I’m sick of it, Ellen. I want Dean and his wife to be safe when their baby comes. I want Sam to go back to school… I wish his girlfriend was alive again. I want my Mary.” He laid his head down and wept openly, hoping it was as late as he thought it was and the bar was emptier than usual.
“Mom… what’s wrong with Uncle John?”
“Just had a close one is all, honey. Lock up. I’m going to get him into bed.”
John spent a week there. Listening to Jo’s stories of botched hunts, giving pointers when Ellen wasn’t listening. Then he knew he had to load up and head back to New York or else he’d never forgive himself for missing the birth of his first grandchild.
--
John peered into the window at the little boxes in little rows. Then he saw it. Pink with ‘Winchester, Mary’ across the end of it. John fiddled with his plastic bracelet for a moment before moving over to knock on the door. His bracelet was scanned and then he could pick up his granddaughter. She was warm and soft and the very best of her parents rolled into one. “Mary, it’s Grandpa Winchester. It’s good to finally meet you… Mary, our son done good. Married himself a good girl and look at our granddaughter.”
Dark hair on top of fair skin and John wondered at her eyes. Would they be her namesake’s or her mother’s? Would Liz’s alienness be passed on? Would the curse of the Winchester’s fate be passed on? Would she have a shot at the kind of life that John would like for his grandchild?
When Dean walked in, John didn’t hand her over. He didn’t even look up when Sam snapped off a picture. He held on until she woke up, then Dean took her to Liz’s room for feeding. Liz waved at him with a weary smile as she took her daughter into her arms. “Hey Papa Winchester.”
It was Sam who ended up sitting with John while he fought the urge to fall apart. They had six months to solve this thing. His hand on his father’s shoulder, Sam finally let himself see the father he’d denied he’d had through his teens. Dean had been right. John Winchester was indeed a family man. Loved his boys, would kill for his boys, would die for them given the opportunity.
Sam cleared his throat at long last. “Dad, if Dean was gone in that world… where was I?”
John took a deep shuddering breath and looked at his boy. “Trying to live in this world alone… and it doesn’t suit you.”
“How so?”
“I… stayed too long, Sam. I got to see that world change too much… and maybe it was all of my fears being played out but… I didn’t like the person you turned into and I don’t think you did either.” He glanced around the courtyard they had secluded themselves in. “I never wanted this for you, Sam… but I didn’t know how to give you what you wanted without feeling like you weren’t safe.”
“My whole life… I feel like you’ve been shielding me from the world and I have never understood it. These weird things kept happening like with your contacts and with Miss Lyle and I never really got it… but I’m starting to.”
“Are you?”
“I have an IQ of 135… I was bound to figure it out eventually…” Sam tried to joke but he wasn’t nearly as good as Dean was about it. “The thing that killed Mom… Jess… it wants me. I’ve been having these dreams, Dad…” He took a deep breath. “I think that if I stay here with Dean and Liz… that something bad will happen to them.”
“How do you mean?”
“I mean… I think I’m a magnet for it, Dad. I don’t want to bring it down on them. I need to get away.”
“We’ll stay awhile… I think I know what can get us out of here for a while.”
--
The diner was garish. Aliens and UFOs and kids everyfuckingwhere. John sat down at the counter and picked up a menu. He ordered something that sounded like it might be a coconut cream pie. He wished for beer but ordered a coke. Then he waited and watched. Then he paid his bill before asking to speak to the owner. A tall thin man appeared and asked if there was something wrong with the service or the food.
“No, it was all very fine but I’m told Jeff Parker owns this place.”
“That would be me.”
“Then I have something for you.” John reached into his pocket and pulled out a fat envelope. “It seems that you and I are family.”
“How’s that?” Jeff asked even as he opened the envelope and the first of many pictures showed themselves. Jeff stumbled but motioned for John to follow him. “Nancy!”
Jeff laid them on a table and spread them out, not sure where to look first. “Family, huh. So this man.”
“Is my son, her husband. And the baby is theirs, just born last month.” John held his hand out. “John Winchester.”
“Jeff Parker.” Jeff shook his hand firmly and introduced his wife when she appeared. “My wife Nancy. Nancy, this is John Winchester, Liz’s father-in-law.”
Nancy shook his hand, blinking wildly, then took to the pictures laid out on the table. “Oh my goodness, Liz.” She flipped through the pictures and held up the one with Dean and the baby. “Name?”
“His is Dean… and that’s Mary.”
Jeff took in everything he could and let Nancy ask all the important questions. “Mary… such a sweet name. How long have they been married?”
“Not long.” John nearly bit his tongue. “They… named her after Dean’s mother… she passed away when the boys were young. That’s Sam. Dean’s little brother.”
“Where is she? What happened to her first husband?”
There, John paused. “I know… a lot about why she left. She’s not coming back. She doesn’t know I’m here.” He cleared his throat and ran a hand over the beard he hadn’t shaved since waking up in the hospital four months earlier. “She’d kill me for put you two at risk but… I’m her daughter’s grandfather. I trump her. If it were my boys… I’d want the same.”
“Is… do you know about her first husband?”
“He’s alive and a pain in my son’s ass.” John confirmed. They exchanged a look before returning to examine the evidence set before them. “She’s happy and safe. Dean will see to that.”
“Thank you.” Nancy stilled the passing of photos to and fro. “John… for this… she’s our only daughter.”
“Mine, too.” John nodded to them. “I don’t have a lot of time. These are yours… I know where they keep the negatives.”
--
John steered the truck along the freeway and listened to Sam postulating on the hunt. He wanted to slap him and tell him to shut up but Sam was there. Right there and trying. Even after all this time and all that had happened. John wouldn’t risk losing him again.
“I figure it was predecessor to what we are used to fighting… like an avatar. She was more demon than anything else. Made her powerful even in her weakened state. You were injured and exhausted, I guess. Made you vulnerable is all. The drinking didn’t help I suppose. I still don’t know why it picked Liz though. Betrayal being the key and all. You had just met her.”
“I think I know.” John cleared his throat. “I was attracted to her. I didn’t want to be but I was. And once she and your brother started up… it was far, far worse that I was.”
“I guess I see that.” Sam stared at his father for the longest time. Could almost feel his shame at how he had felt. “Maybe I was mad at the position we ended up in but… I guess I understand… and I don’t blame you. Dean’s… really laid into me and he’s finally making sense.”
“That right?’
“I never wanted to see your side before and now I can’t not and I was a little shit to you all those years.”
“You were a Winchester male. It’s tough work raising a Winchester. I should know…” John tried to joke. “I didn’t get along with my dad, Sam. Don’t know why. We just didn’t get each other… It’s why I tried so hard all those years to get us common ground. Dean… was always so sure of himself in our family. He took care of us. It was easy for him to get the both of us. You and I didn’t spend too much time getting to know each other, ever. I’m afraid that I messed up the important parts.”
“Dad, missing a game or a play wasn’t it.”
“That’s not the part I was talking about.” John cut his eyes to his son. “I took care of my kids but I wasn’t focused on them. I wasn’t focused on you. I was focused on the things around you. The things coming after you. I wasted my time with you and by the time I realized that I had messed it up… and then you were gone.”
“You saying that it was just something that happened. That we just don’t get each other.”
“It means that when you were willing to show an interest in me, I was too busy doing other things… and when I needed to take an interest in you… you’d already left… years before you actually did. I held on tighter. I got meaner and you left anyway.”
“Dad… I…”
“It’s the plight of a parent, Sam. Dean’s going to learn this but I think he’ll do a better job of it than I did.”
“What makes you think that?”
“He raised you and you turned out okay.”
Sam stared at his father for the longest time. “Dad… you raised me. Dean did a lot but… Dean and I are not alike. We are not… we’re brothers and we love each other and we get the jokes because… you taught ‘em to us. You did okay… you know… considering.”
“Considering what? Brimstone and Hellfire every Thursday on cue?”
“Yeah… something like that.” Sam blinked back a tear. “Dean was right… you’ve changed and… I don’t want to fight with you anymore. I mean… if you can change, then maybe so can I.” He cleared his throat. “I know that you’re still protecting me and I’d appreciate it if you’d trust me enough to let me know what you’re protecting me from.”
“Okay… I think that you’ll never be ready for this but… you’re as ready as you’re ever going to be for it.” John lowered the radio and began to recite, from the top, all the research he’d done since Sam was six months old. All the years and sacrifices that John had made to protect his family in the interim. He snuck glances at his son and admired his concentration and his ability to sift through the information for what John could never say. For what John had always been afraid to say. That all amounted to: I loved you and your brother enough that I’ll burn in Hell to save you from the evil son of a bitch that took your mother from us.
The End