2028 a.d.
Andrew thought it was funny that the day he would leave for America it would be a beautiful day; sunshine, rainbows, and the non-tourist laden establishments booming with cheers and good vibes. He never felt like he truly belonged here, but he gave it a shot for his mother and his girlfriend. Andrew never saw himself attending Holy Trinity and moving a few hours away from his tiny family, but at his girlfriend's insistence he did and took up a humanities study with a focus in genealogy.
He didn't know how to pack for a trip across the pond, but Hannah had some experience from a family trip to Hawaii when she was younger and helped him pack accordingly. She knew how to pack for weather (early spring and chilly), worst case scenarios (security checks), being stuck in airports (that happened everywhere), and even helped him with the legal formalities including visas and insurances. Andrew would have just bought a plane ticket and went along his way, but he was going to be stateside for at least three weeks. From the some of the research he did America wasn't much different from Ireland, but it he was going to be thrusted into the culture he mocked the drunken tourists for.
Hannah, although supportive of him, was hesitant about the trip. His mother didn't approve of it either, but Andrew was too curious for his own good.
As Andrew gathered a few more things around his apartment he stopped by his dresser and pulled open the sock drawer. That was where he kept the faded Polaroid picture. Until he attended primary school it was just a picture of his mother from when she was younger, on a study trip in the United States, and the man was what she insisted was a friend. The bottom white strip had a name and a date, Dean Winchester, 2007. For years Andrew accepted what his mother told him, but the kids at school picked on him and insulted his mother. Yeah, he knew he had no father around. He was fine with that because that was all he needed. Andrew would defend his mother, Carolynn, until he gave his last breath.
He didn't care about the fact that he had no father around until he was learning international geography and the class made snide remarks about the USA. When Andrew asked his best friend Edward about it his world was turned upside down.
With this trip he hoped his world would be balanced. He had a name, he had a picture, now he was going to finally meet the man that his mother hid from him. It wasn't intentional, but it was the last thing Carolynn wanted to deal with while raising a son on her own.
Hannah returned to their shared apartment with news that Andrew's cab had arrived. Andrew was going to get on a plane for the first time and to a place that wasn't Ireland.
They rode together all the way to Dublin International. Hannah voiced her concerns all the way. "Are you sure he is even alive?"
Andrew shrugged, "Even if he isn't I think I should at least meet a relative. I don't have many of those, Hannah."
"I know, but you know nothing about this man other that what your mum told you, which wasn't much to begin with."
"I know that." He hated having these conversations with Hannah. She would never understand, he thought. She had a family, she things he didn't. It wasn't that Andrew wasn't grateful to his mother, that was far from the truth, but he felt a part of him was missing when he was told the truth. "You wanna talk about how I am a product of a one-night stand too?"
"No, not at all. I'm just saying that this is kind of risky. You're going there by yourself to meet a man that as we have found out was declared dead at least three times, was wanted by the FBI, and was missing for a year too. I think I have a right to worry."
This was all true. When Andrew was fifteen and learned the truth about his origins he started digging around. Carolynn was positive that Dean was his father, the timing was just right. She went out for one last hurrah with her study abroad classmates and remembered waking up to a green-eyed beauty the next morning and a Polaroid tucked into her jeans. The further he dug into Dean Winchester's history he was horrified and intrigued. He knew he had an uncle from prison records that he paid a hacker to find. The crimes ranged from grave desecration, murder, a few dozen counts of assault, arson, robbery, all kinds of fraud, officer impersonation, and enough traffic violations to have their own filing unit. He never told his mother about these crimes. He was afraid it would make her feel bad. Andrew watched for patterns of everything. The fact that he was declared dead more than once and vanished for a year is what threw him off. How does one do that and manage to stay in the same country? Something was suspicious and Andrew got curious.
He had a lot of sleepless nights when he had down time, and a lot of heavy telephone bills from calling people with connections around US. Most of them lead to dead ends and people believing that Dean and his brother, Andrew's uncle, Sam were dead. The people he talked to on the phone and emailed had more good things to say about them, heroic things, than bad. There was more to this man in the picture than Hannah gave her boyfriend credit for.
The trip had the possibility of being dangerous, but Andrew was willing to take the risk. He wasn't about to live his life without at least meeting him. He kissed Hannah goodbye at the security check and moved through the huge airport. He got on his plane with little nerves and a little bit of Jameson in his blood.
Andrew flew through the night and landed first in Philidelphia, then caught his connecting flight to Topeka. From there he navigated with ease to catch a bus to Lebenon, where a man named Garth said he could be found. Garth redirected him to a woman named Charlie who gave him the exact coordinates and promised to inform Dean's brother Sam that he would be arriving. Andrew asked that Charlie would not have Sam give Dean any warning fearing the possibility that his father could run. He didn't know what to expect but he hoped for the best and prepared for the worst. Thankfully there was a motel not far from his destination. He regretted at the moment he found the motel that he didn't find a proper sleeping establishment, but this was America, and he was going to make do. He dropped off his stuff and started walking, not caring about how tired he was from traveling.
Andrew was nervous and the anxiety grew as made his way up the hill to the door in the ground. Charlie told him in an email that Sam would be expecting him and to not be taken back by his new uncle's height, and despite what he read about his father, that there was nothing to be scared of.
Andrew's first thought when he reached his destination was that his family must have been a few nuts that believed the world was going to end, so they built a shelter underground and lived in it full time. This was nuts, he thought. Hannah was right.
But those thoughts didn't stop Andrew from knocking on the heavy door. He gave it about a minute before the door squeaked open a crack. There was a very tall and gray man behind it. Andrew assumed that was his uncle.
"Can I help you with something, son?" He sounded beaten and tired.
Andrew cleared his throat, "Uh, yeah. I am here to see Dean Winchester."
"Who isn't?" he scoffed.
"Did Charlie Bradbury send you my message?"
"Pertaining to what?"
"Uh, that I may be your nephew?"
The door opened further, but Andrew backed up from it when he saw the silver knife in the man's hand. "You're the Andrew kid, from Ireland, right?"
Andrew nodded unable to pull his sight from the weapon.
The man held out his hand, "I'm Sam. More than likely your uncle from the look of you."
Andrew returned to gesture and shook his uncle's hand. "I guess it is a pleasure, judging from the knife in your hand."
Sam didn't pull his weapon back. "Just some old school paranoia, kid."
Andrew nodded and swallowed, "Nothing to worry about here."
"If you only knew." Sam took Andrew's hand and quickly ran the silver blade across one of his finger tips. Andrew swore at the sting, but all was forgotten when Sam opened the door further to let his nephew in.
/ / /
Sam made sure that this twenty-something sitting in front of him in their kitchen wasn't a demon or an angel. Andrew seemed polite enough, but it was the fact that he was Irish was what threw Sam off. It didn't seem very likely, but then again, this was Dean's son in-question, and with Dean (despite his age) anything was possible.
Sam got a few basic's out of him. His name was Andrew McDaniel from Dublin, he had a girl in his life, and he was a student when he was working in the warehouse district to support himself. Sam carefully questioned if Andrew had any supernatural experiences to which his possible nephew scoffed at the idea. If only this kid knew. Andrew didn't ask much about Sam. He was still carefully guarded in case they would later find out they weren't related. While Carolynn was positive, Andrew wanted to be totally sure and purchased a few at-home tests. Sam didn't object, but based on look alone there were some undeniable traces of Dean there, particularly in the shaped of his face. "So where is my father now?" Andrew asked.
Sam sighed, "He should be wrapping up his physical therapy now." He looked at his watch, "Should be home any minute actually." Sam poured a little more Jack into his and Andrew's glass. "So do you want me to help you out with this?"
Andrew nodded, "I think it would be a good idea since it would be a little jarring to have the first thing you see in a protected underground fortress was a total stranger." At least Andrew had a sense of humor, thank god.
After a few more silent minutes of trying to read each other Sam heard the door open. Sam got up, "Just hang out here a sec."
I guess I am going to start a new fic, because I can, but this one has been bugging me for weeks. Let me know what you think.
