Alec leaned against the door frame and watched the computer screen. "Okay so between 1983 and 1993, the guy didn't file a tax return, had various odd jobs all over the country, pulled the kids out of school every few months and kept no permanent address." He said. "Now he is CIA? You know...I'm not thinking it's such a good idea for the boys to go back.."

"Shouldn't judge the man just by his occupation." Logan said. "He could be a great father, the boys obviously miss him. Weren't you the one telling me not to judge a book by its cover, or even the dust jacket?"

"The chances of this guy not working for Manticore are what? You want to hand them over to someone that worked for Manticore because they miss him? There are people I miss too, doesn't mean they were good to me. Just better than the rest."

"Or he could be straight CIA." Logan pointed out. "No way to really tell from the files, but not every government agency is tied up in Manticore. There's still FBI, NSA, CIA, CDC, Homeland Security, and a majority of them don't have anything to do with genome splicing."

"Let's at least look deeper before we let the kids know. I mean your average CIA agent doesn't have their kids put in stasis by Manticore, either." Something about it made Alec's hackles rise. "It just seems off... "

"The whole thing is off and makes no sense." Logan said. "Maybe we should track down a doctor from there, if we can, and see if they know why the kids were being held. Nice time for Lydecker to disappear." He didn't believe Lydecker was dead, the man was too slippery..

"Any luck with the black box?" Alec asked, not really wanting to deal with the doctors from Manticore. His experiences with them didn't leave him with a lot of trust. "Sam liked the book you sent him by the way."

"He did?" Logan asked. It wasn't a child's book. But he was gauging the kid's intelligence. He'd talk to Sam later about the book. "Sure Dean doesn't want something along those lines?" He said as he brought up the files he'd managed to recover. And even those weren't whole. "Fire damage, smoke damage, and someone tried to wipe it, maybe an automatic security thing." He said. "A list of their vitals, they did a lot of brain scans on them, but that's all I know. That they did the brain scans, not the actual brain scans. A few audio files here and there."

Alec nodded. "Okay... Well, we can listen to the audio files if you put them on a disk and see what we can figure out from that." He told Logan, wanting to listen to it with Max and maybe even Joshua. He over heard a lot lurking down in the basement. "Dean isn't interested in studying.. He's smart, though. He can explain about ½ of what Sam doesn't get the first run through. Which is pretty good, considering what you send over there for him. Most of the time I think he can explain more. He just doesn't want to."

"Well, maybe we can convince him." Logan said with a shrug as he popped a CD into his computer and started burning the audio he'd managed to recover. "If he's a smart kid, we should convince him to study as much as he can. Only so much you can learn on the streets." He handed the disk to Alec. "I'll see what else I can dig up on John Winchester."

"Sounds like a plan." He said, then called Max on his cell phone. He got her voice mail. "Hey, meet me at Joshua's tonight. I'll bring the beer. We have some files to listen to that Logan got off the black box." He said. then hung up. "Any luck on a school or teachers for Sam?"

"Found a couple of schools, they're not local though. Not sure his brother would go for that." Logan said.. "A few teachers on the list, they do some underground schools, but I want to make sure they're on the up and up before I go any further."

Alec nodded. "Sounds good. I'm gonna take off. Got a couple of errands to run." He said. "You have a book for me to take over to the kids?" He asked, as he gathered his gear to go. He wanted to pick up a few things for Joshua before heading over. He felt sorry for the guy. Trapped inside all the time. Constantly lectured that the one thing he wants more than anything is a bad idea.

"Yeah." Logan said, reaching over and grabbing a few books. He'd conned them off his cousin in exchange for some wine, but it was more young adult fare, bordering on adult fare. The kids were picking it up fast, he wanted to challenge them until he got them a teacher. "Let me know what you guys find out."

"Will do." He said as he tucked the books in his bag and headed out. He picked up a few things then stopped by the boys apartment before heading over to Joshua's. He rapped on the door and waited to see if they were home.

"Who's it?" Dean called out. They'd gotten a television, and Dean was splicing in cable. He'd learned to do that in the different motels they'd stayed in. Not all of them had offered free HBO after all. "Sam, go see who it is." Sam knew how to check who was at the door without letting anyone see him.

"Alec." He called from the other side of the door. "Not here for long, gotta book." He said and grinned a little at his own pun.

Sam opened the door, and let him in to the apartment. "Hey Alec." He said, closing the door once he was inside.

"Hey kid, how ya doin'?"

Sam shrugged. "I'm alright." He said.

"Logan sent these over for you, and I brought these." He handed the books to Sam and the pulled out a bag of M&Ms and tossed them onto the table. Peanut. Hard to get in some sectors. It was the chocolate. That was all Alec could figure. Chocolate was hard to come by and therefore it was too costly.
"Hey thanks!" Dean said, seeing the M&Ms.. Oh how he'd missed those. "So Logan got any word on our father yet?" He knew Logan was the friend of Max and Alec that was checking into things for them about their father. Dean wasn't making any headway on his searches... None of his dad's old friends had the same numbers, and he'd discovered already one or two were dead.

"Not yet. Apparently there are a lot of John Winchesters out there. Unless you think he would have joined the CIA or something. He's still looking though. Logan's pretty dogged. He won't give up until he finds something."

"CIA?" Dean said. "I wouldn't think so. But he was a Marine, so who knows how that would have played out." He said with a shrug. He finished hooking up the cable. "This place is amazing. With a little knowledge, you don't have to pay for anything."

"I am so having you come over to my place to hook that up." Alec said with a laugh. "Marine huh...I'll let Logan know. Maybe that will help. So anything you two need before I take off?"

"Where's a nice, legit church?" Dean asked. They had to get holy water somehow. And with the way the world was now, he wouldn't put it past someone to set up a con church for money. Would certainly be lucrative, but they needed actual blessed holy water. "We, ah, you know, used to go once in a while. So it's a bit of a nice routine for us."

Alec thought about it. "You are going to need to go over to one of the more affluent sectors to be sure it's all good." He drew out a quick street map for Dean and gave him directions. "I saw this one while making deliveries the other day."

"Thanks." Dean said. He had some extra bottles, they'd head over there today and fill them up. Couldn't hurt to be cautious. Though he hadn't picked up on any supernatural things yet. "For the M&Ms, I'll hook you up with cable.." He said with a grin. It was a fair trade.

"Anytime, man." He said. "If you two are good, I'm out of here. Hopefully hooking up with Max tonight. If she got my message anyway." He started walking toward the door. "Let me know when you want to come over and hook up the cable."

"Just let me know." Dean said.. "Just remember I'm a young and impressionable mind, so probably when Max isn't there." Both boys were still under the impression that Max and Alec were an item.

Alec flashed them a quick smile. "I'll be sure to pick a night I'm home alone." He said.. Half an hour later he was walking into Joshua's house with a bag of snacks and a 6 pack of beer.

"Alec!" Joshua said when Alec came in. "Come! Must see. Joshua number 50!" He said, showing the canvas with a flourish. It was his one release, painting. He couldn't be part of the outside world, but with his painting, the outside world could be part of him, at least for a little while. It helped lessen the loneliness and the cabin fever.
"Hey, that's great. I love it." Alec said. He didn't get that sort of art, but he didn't have to. People like Logan loved that sort of thing. He was more into impressionism than abstract. But the fact that it made Joshua happy was enough. "Brought some stuff over for tonight." He said, setting the bag down. "I think Max is coming. I left her a message. "

"Little fella? Dinner." Joshua said. "We'll make dinner." He sniffed at Alec, from a distance of course. But his DNA had a good splash of canine in it. "New friends? Alec has new friends?"

"Yeah, I do. That's kind of what we were gonna be talking about tonight." He said as he pulled out his phone and paged Max, he wanted to make sure she knew about it. Sometimes phone messages didn't get checked. "It's a couple of kids that escaped Manticore. They don't have bar codes though."

"Like Joshua." Joshua said with a nod. He didn't have a bar code either. Because he was first. "Everyone from the basement got out. Joshua let them out. Fire and smoke, they would have died, like Joshua if Little Fella didn't let him out."

"They were in stasis." Alec said as he put things away that he had brought. "They remember having normal kid lives. Parents, schools, all that stuff. So we are trying to sort out what was going on with them. They were kept in the lab in back of medlab."

"Stasis. Like sleeping." Joshua said. "And not growing up. Poor little kids." He said as Alec's phone rang.

"Hey." Max said when he picked up. "I'm just finishing up at Jam Pony, I'll be over to Josh's in about five minutes." She'd gotten the voice mail, but finished her deliveries first. Sometimes it was advantageous to keep Normal in a good mood.

"Sounds good. Joshua is gonna cook, I brought beer. Logan found some audio files on the black box. Figured we could listen to them with Joshua since he has over heard a lot more stuff at Manticore than we have. Something might ring a bell or two."

"Be over in five." Max said as she hung up and walked through the door five minutes later. "Hey Big Fella." She said to Josh with a smile.

"Alec has new friends." Joshua said as he finished dinner. Simple food, he liked simple food. Grilled cheese and toasted potato sticks, french fries.

"They live in my building." Max said as she sat down at the table as Joshua brought the food out. "Okay, let's hear it." She said to Alec as she opened a beer.

He took the CD that Logan had given him and put it into the old CD player and turned up the volume a little. "Subject W-1 is a 14 year old male." The voice began and started to list the details of all things physically Dean. To include a few of the more abstract genetic details.
"Stop." Joshua said, his eyes closed as he listened.

"What is it?" Max asked.

"That's Father." He said softly. "That's Father's voice."

"Sandeman." Max said. "W-1 would be Dean, Winchester One maybe? Means Sandeman knows who he took....rewind back to the genetic stuff." She said and listened again. "Sounds like they're taking inventory, like they're just studying them."

"But why?" Alec asked and looked at Max, his mind whirling over probabilities. "Okay, so what if the parents didn't have a clue?" He suggested. "If they went into the wrong fertility clinic or something...Joshua was the first transgenic, but the boys might be the culmination of some other project."

"They had to figure out the human side of the genome before they started splicing." Max said, nodding. "Okay, we arrived in 2000. Joshua here says he came into the world around 1997 or so.....they were taken in 1993, maybe they needed some in-depth study...."

"Father was not an evil man.." Joshua insisted.

Alec frowned thoughtfully. "Okay... I am more than happy to think that there was some not nefarious reason for having the kids there. But they were kidnapped and they were kept in stasis for 27 years. He was involved with the project what ever that was. But I doubt he always had the choice what projects he worked on. Maybe he thought it would be kinder to keep them in stasis than let the rest of Manticore have at them."

Joshua nodded, accepting that. There was more, he knew. There had to be more. But he remembered the scientists at Manticore, it was better that the kids were asleep rather than know what was going on around them.

"There's not much here." Max said as she ate.. "I mean, we don't know why they were held, or for so long, especially in stasis. From what I can hear, their DNA sounds basically normal.. Of course, who knows what we're not hearing."

"Logan said he located a John Winchester. Looks like the same guy, but he's CIA. Doesn't understand why I don't think it's a great thing to find him.. I mean... CIA? With kids in stasis at Manticore? Tell me he isn't connected somehow to all this."

Max groaned. Certainly sounded suspicious to her. "So you think Winchester had his own kids put in stasis? From the way his sons talk about him, he was pretty damn close to god like. We're missing something big here. I know we are."

"I know." Alec said. "And I don't know if he put them in stasis himself or not, he was on the run from something from the time Sam was a baby until they went into stasis. About the time their mother died actually, in a house fire. He never kept a job long if at all, they rarely stayed in one school for more than a couple months at a time. He might have been on the run from them for all I know. But it's still suspicious that he is suddenly in the same sort of government post that Manticore would put someone into."

"Maybe he went into CIA to look for new friends." Joshua suggested. "CIA secret spy agency, right?" He'd gotten that off the television he barely watched, mostly only with Alec. It made sense to Joshua that the father might go into a secret spy agency to find his missing kids, that were being kept in a secret government lab.

"It's possible. The question is... what sort of man was he really before the boys were taken? He got Manticore's attention some how, and according to what Logan has found he was supposedly nothing more than an ex marine turned auto mechanic. Still too many unanswered questions. "

"Who says it's him?" Max pointed out. "They started hopping from place to place after his wife died, right? Maybe it was something to do with her. We can't discount that one at all. There's a reason he started doing that after his wife died, sure it wasn't just because he liked to change scenery."

"It's possible. something to look into, that's for sure." Alec said. "It would explain a lot. I just don't want to get the boys hopes up, only to hand them off to some guy that might turn out to be a monster. I mean...even Ames has a family."

"Don't remind me." Max said. "Well, hey, Dean thinks you're cooler than sliced bread. And he'd be the one to know about his mother, if anything. So take him out for some guy time."

"You are gonna have to baby sit though, 'cause you know he won't go anywhere without Sam taken care of. Maybe take Sam over to Logan for geek time or something." He said as he leaned back, drinking his beer. "Should probably have him research the mother too. We've been focused on finding out about the father."

"I'm sure Sam would enjoy 'geek time'." Max said with a laugh. "Just, don't let Dean go home with a stripper. He's only fourteen you know. I'll take care of Sam."

"Can I meet new friends?" Joshua asked hopefully.

"Let me work on that." Max said carefully. "I mean, they come from not this time, they don't know about Manticore, not really."

"We'll start letting them know things, get them used to the idea of our crazy mixed up DNA, and then bring them by. They'll like ya, big guy." What kid wouldn't like a big fluffy puppy that talks, reads and paints? Not to mention would protect them with his life if need be. Alec loved that about Joshua. He was the closest thing to innocent that ever came out of Manticore. He understood why Max tried to protect that. He didn't think she was doing him any favors though.

Joshua nodded. He understood. He wasn't dumb by any means, his language skills just weren't up to par. But his mind was keen. And curious, oh so curious, which was what led him to trouble time and again. "Okay." He said. Nothing he could do to fight that anyway.

"It'll be fine, Joshua. Once they're used to you, they'll probably be underfoot all the time anyway." She said as she looked at her watch. "We should go and catch them before too long."

"Let's go." He said with a shrug, getting to his feet. "They will be home. Dean spliced in cable today." He grinned thinking about the cable that would be coming into his home soon enough. He definitely liked that kid. Sam was alright too. Just a little young for Alec to know what to do with. Kids Sam's age, Alec usually told to drop and give him 100 push ups.

"Thanks for dinner, Joshua." Max said with a smile as they headed out. "Seems more we investigate this, the more questions we have. I'm getting really tired of it too. We don't have any answers whatsoever." She said to Alec.

"Yeah, me too. I'm almost ready to just say screw it and just ... I don't know... make sure they are alright and not messed with and call it good. " Although part of it he had to admit was he was feeling protective of them. More protective of Sam than Dean. But Dean had proven he didn't need much in the way of protection, so he figured that was the reason for the difference. Dean he felt a kinship with. Like having a little brother or something.

Max looked at Alec a little surprised at that. Willingly looking after someone else? The transgenic was full of surprises. "They won't be messed with. My building is pretty tight, actually."

"Yeah it is. No one there talks about who else is in there. Which is good. I just have a bad feeling about all of this. It feels like I've got the sword of Damocles hanging over my head. Not in a personal way.... but that ...something is stalking my unit way."

"We'll figure this out." Max said. "And if we can't, we'll have to shuttle them off to Canada. We all know how Manticore hates to let its special projects get away. Not to mention the government is all about shutting down any inkling of it."

Alec looked ahead, silently. He didn't know that he could just shuttle them off like that. If Logan Cale could get people across the border, so could Manticore or Ames White. "I don't know.. if we have to I might have to go with... you know... till they are settled.." He said, not liking the option of leaving either. "Don't get too caught up in the thought that the government wants it shut down. I think they just want us to go away. A place that like that doesn't disappear because an installation goes down." Yeah, change the subject. Don't talk about something you can't explain in the first place. Like why he felt so damned protective of a pair of kids he barely knew.

Max made a face. "I know, that's the scariest part." Max said. "We'll figure it out.. No choice, right?" She said with an attempt at a grin as they came up to her building. "Okay, guy time for Dean, and geek time for Sam, right?"

"That's the one." Alec said. "You know they still think we're a couple." He relayed the conversation with Dean earlier. Which made him laugh. He liked the illusion though, and hoped that she didn't decide to blast that out of the water.

Max laughed and shook her head. "Men." She said. "Boys. Whatever. You couldn't handle me, Alec. In fact, I think I'm somehow going to let slip that you take these days off to sleep off what I do to you, whereas I get up and go to work. Men really are the weaker of the species."

"Whatever moves your furniture." He said with a grin. "But how many men can you say wear themselves out for you?" He pointed out. "I mean...it could be that I'm the one doing all the work, but I would never say that. " Green eyes twinkled merrily.

She laughed as they headed up the stairs. "Of course you do all the work. I'm spoiled by my sugar bear, remember?" She said with a grin as she knocked on their door. "It's Max." She said before they could go through their protocols. Dean opened the door.

"Hey." He said. "We were just watching some TV. Even have some of the shows we had when we were....well....whatever. Anyway, the reruns are new to us."

"So are you totally into the TV tonight, or are you up for a little two man hustling at the pool tables?" Alec asked. "Max can stay with Sam...maybe take him over to talk to Logan... you know... geek time. Trust me... Logan is a real geek. One of the nicer sectors though."

Dean looked at Sam. "You up for 'geek time'?" He asked. "You know Logan wants to probe around in that head of yours and see what's going on." He teased. Like did Sam really understand half of what was being sent to him or not?

Sam looked up from his book. "Sure" He said. "I like Logan. Besides, he has a lot of books, and a really cool computer."

Alec couldn't help but smile at that. Sam was an alien species to the former soldier. But he was a good kid. "Alright then. Dean and I will be out saving money from fools that don't know what to do with it and you two can go be cerebral or whatever it is you guys do over there."

Max laughed. "I'll have him home on time." Max said to Dean. "Come on, Sam."

Dean watched Sam and Max leave. "It's the computer, gotta be." He said. "I mean, Logan's a nice enough guy. But he's also kind of a tool." In his view, Logan was trying to move in on Alec's girl. And even at fourteen, he knew you didn't do that to a friend.

Alec laughed. "Yeah he is. But he's alright. He's over his chicken pox now so it's all good." He said with a chuckle. That had been hilarious. Although Max was convinced it was a miracle and he had been contaminated by the virus because some kid kissed them both.

Dean shook his head. Poor Alec. Logan was moving in to steal his girl right under his nose. "My dad taught me to shoot pool." He warned. "I'm actually pretty good."
"Then we shouldn't have any trouble running the hustle then." He said with a nod. "When did you start learning to play?" Conversation, gathering information, if you were good, you could do both at once and not even have to prod much at all.

"About eight." Dean said with a shrug.. "It was nice guy time." He said with a grin. "We used to do all sorts of things together. Pool, darts, fixing the car, he taught me to shoot." He missed the Impala. As homey as he made the apartment, in his head, the Impala was always home.

Alec had learned similar things at an early age but didn't have the fond memories that Dean did.. Most of his childhood memories before the age of 9 were pretty much neutral. He hadn't had anything to compare it to. Life simply was how it was. After that it changed. Alec pushed himself harder and harder to succeed to prove that he wasn't like those that had escaped, or his psychotic clone. Yet he never quite succeeded. He wasn't succeeding at fitting into Max's world either. But at least he had more fun trying. "You like to shoot?" He asked.. "You any good at it?"

"Of course I'm good." Dean said with a smirk. "Dad was a Marine, he served in the war. If I wasn't good, he would have disowned me."

"What about Sam? Does he know how yet?" He asked. "Cause if you want to practice sometime, I can arrange it." Alec believed in keeping up with skills. Especially the ones that kept you alive. Not everyone had them hardwired in, after all.

"He started skeet shooting before we....well...fell asleep, I guess." Dean said with a shrug. "But yeah, some practice time would be great. Dad always wanted us to be marksmen or something."

Alec nodded. "How much has Max told you about Manticore?" He asked. He knew they had talked about cloning and that it was a government installation, but other than that he didn't know.

"Well, I got the feeling it's pretty much an evil place." Dean said with a shrug. "And the cloning, and experiments, and messing around with DNA. A lot of it is over my head," he admitted, "but it's like they were building an army out of people."

"Yeah, they were." He said. "Max and I have a pretty messed up DNA structure. Sometimes... some of the people the created would have more outward appearances of the animals mixed in." He said trying to lay the groundwork for poor Joshua. He had been so curious about the boys.

Dean looked at Alec.. "So the dog face on the tabloid was someone like you, and not, I don't know, a demon?"

"Yeah, that was Joshua. He looked up and next thing he knows some screaming mimi is taking his picture and chasing him all over the place. Poor guy can't even leave his house. Max and I take food and stuff over to him every day, try and visit for a while."

"That sounds harsh." Dean said. "So he's not a demon? You do know they exist, right?"
Alec paused then, standing completely still. "Demons...." He said. "No...can't say that I do." He didn't know how to proceed. "Not that I can't say it's possible, most don't think I'm possible. But... demons exist? Like fallen angels crawling up out of hell demons?"

"Like fallen angels crawling up from hell." Dean said. "Angry spirits who can't move on and become violent. Creatures of nature like wendigos. Nature spirits, pagan demons and gods. Seriously? No one sees them here?"

"Seriously, I wouldn't know." Alec said. "It's not something I was trained in, and until a few months ago I was... well... I didn't get out much."

"Were you there?" Dean asked as they drew closer to the pool hall. "When it all burned down to the ground?"

"I got back just as it was going down." He said. "When everyone was running." His eyes were distant. "I had been on a mission, came back and it was gone." Alec took a deep breath and shook it off. The rage and horror that they were killing his people mingling with the loss of everything he had ever known even though that life had been in some ways horrific, left Alec conflicted, confused and desperately needing to blow it off. "But hey ... couldn't happen to a better place, right?" He said, pasting on his best smile.

"Wouldn't know." Dean said. "I was asleep the whole time, remember? Then again, what do I know? I lived in motels. The closest thing I had to a home was a car. Oh man and it was a sweet car too." He said, sensing Alec needed the subject changed. "1967 Impala. Black, kick ass...."

"When I first got out, I picked up a ride, convertible, a little older than that I think. I loved that car." He said. "More importantly girls love that car. But it wasn't meant to be. I had to take off and leave it behind when the cops showed up where I was staying unannounced."

"Cops suck that way." Dean agreed. He'd been through a few middle of the night moves himself in his life, getting the hell out of town as fast as possible under the protection of darkness. "They don't understand a lot of things."

"They don't understand anything, and it's probably better for people like me that it stay that way. People are afraid of what they don't understand. " He said as they arrived at Crash. "So what else is there to know about your family that could help us narrow things down a bit... "

Dean gave Alec an amused look. "We're originally from Kansas." He said. "Dad's a mechanic, legally. He was a marine. My mom died in a house fire, started in Sam's nursery, but the rest of us got out." He said as he took a pool cue and chalked it. "A demon killed her. We spent the rest of the time hunting the demon, and anything else we came across."

"You grew up hunting demons? Was that what you were doing in Seattle when you were taken? Hunting down a demon?" Well that was unexpected, and he wasn't at all sure how to deal with that little bombshell. So he was going to file it until later when he could process it. Because this was not the place to show precisely how much that bothered him. Demons? Their father took them out hunting demons, or at least claiming that was what was going on. He definitely didn't want to turn the boys over to their father now. The man was probably a whack job.

Dean smirked at Alec. "Rack 'em up, dude." He said. "Yeah. Demons. Actually that one was a poltergeist. Got the sucker too. So does that make me crazy too?"

"I never said you were crazy." Alec said as he set up the balls. "I have too much strangeness in my life to call anyone crazy." He didn't think Dean was crazy at all. He thought the kid was either the victim of a sadistic joke, or the boys' father lost his kids because he didn't have the sense to take care of them.

"You have a very good point there. But if you say Joshua isn't a demon, that he was created at this Manticore place, I promise we won't shoot him. If you say he's cool, we'll give him a chance."

"He's cool. He's ... he's a little different. He's... got his own way of viewing the world. He's gentle. I think you guys will like him. He asked if he could meet you two, but Max and I wanted to make sure you could accept him before introducing you to him."

"So we don't run off screaming?" Dean said as he broke, sinking a couple of balls. "Worth a shot, right? So what else is going on? You and Max came over like you had big issues on your mind."

"We're still trying to figure out what happened to you two. Why they kidnapped you in the first place. We have no clue at this point. Found the black box at the site, but there isn't much on it but vital statistics. "

"We'll figure it out." Dean said as he cleaned the table off. "Your turn." He said with a smirk.

"You're not going to grow up stupid." Max said with a laugh to Sam as she passed him another book. "Believe me, I can score books for you. And we're working on the teacher thing."

Sam looked at her as though she had grown a second head. "It's not that I'm worried about being stupid, but I don't want to run scams all my life. I don't want Dean to have to do it, either. He does it to take care of me and Dad. And with Dad not here...that leaves only me for Dean to take care of so I have to be smart so that he doesn't get hurt doing something to take care of me. So I have to go to school."

"Your brother took care of both you and your father?" Logan asked from his desk where he was preparing another Eyes Only exclusive, on some police corruption bit.
"Yeah. Dad would be gone a lot... you know...being a salesman. " (hunting and killing monsters) "So Dean has always taken care of me, just like he does now." Sam was enjoying the fruit Logan had given him. Fresh fruit was hard to come by in the sector they were living in. "Dad would be exhausted," (broken and bleeding) "and Dean would take care of him too."

"Well, maybe we can find something else for your brother to do as well." Logan suggested. He wasn't comfortable condemning a fourteen year old to a life of running cons. "So what did your dad sell?"

"Dean wouldn't like that He has to be the one to think of stuff, or it makes him feel like someone else is in control. He wont listen to anyone but Dad." Sam said, although there were times that Sam could convince him to do things he didn't want to do. But it was more that Dean was giving in. He shrugged. "Dad sold stuff... depended on where we were. it was always something different."

"I know someone like that." Max said with a laugh, thinking of Alec.

"So you guys moved a lot then? That had to be rough." Logan said.

"Yeah. I hate it, but Dean is okay with it. He loves the Impala and the time on the road," (the hunt, or at least what of it he had done by 14) "I've been in 14 schools already. Sometimes we would only be there a couple weeks at a time. "

"If we can't find your dad, and we're looking, believe me, we're looking, I can find you two a family in the country to stay with. No sector cops, no running scams, a real school...." Logan suggested and ignored the panic look on Max's face that she quickly covered.

"Nah, that's okay. Thanks anyway. It would feel too much like foster care. And Dean would get into trouble all the time. Grown ups don't get him. Besides it's safer if we are on our own."

Safer for who, Logan wondered. Dean was fourteen. Not possibly old enough or mature enough to take care of himself, never mind his fourteen year old brother. But he let it drop for now.

"How about some dinner?" Logan said. "I'm an amazing cook."

"Sure. Dean will be out with Alec for a while. He won't mind." Sam said. "What are you going to make?" Sam trusted Logan. He didn't know why Dean didn't. It didn't look to him like Logan was trying to steal Max from Alec. They never touched. Just looked at each other, but everyone looked at everyone.

"He's ten." Max said before Logan could speak. "So choose carefully." She knew what he liked to cook.

"Okay. Spaghetti and meatballs then. With milk." Instead of wine.

"I like spaghetti. Dean used to make me Spaghetti-Os when I was little. But they don't have those anymore. But they make Lucky Charms still, so that's good."

"I loved Lucky Charms as a kid." Logan said with a grin. "I used to sneak down when my parents were asleep and pick all the marshmallows out."

"Dean always let me have the last bowl. Even if I had eaten all the rest of it too. Do you have any brothers or sisters?" He asked.

"I think you're the only one with a brother like Dean." Logan said as he poured the pasta into the boiling water. "You two look out for each other, don't you?"

Sam nodded and smiled. "Dean's the best." He worshiped his brother. "He does most of the looking out, but I try." He said. "I know you want to do something nice for us, and make things better, but... please don't make us go to anyone's house in the country." He had been told to watch out for well meaning people that wanted to help. Those were the ones that didn't understand and wound up putting you in foster homes where you couldn't line the entry ways with salt or keep a gun.

"You know, I ran away from Manticore when I was nine." Max said with a grin as she passed Sam a plate of pasta. "You're ten, you've already got a better shot than what I had, right?"

Sam nodded. "I have Dean." He said, with absolute certainty that nothing would happen to him so long as he had his brother. "They won't come after us again, will they?"

"I hope not." Max said. "If they do, we'll handle whatever you and Dean can't, got it? There's no need to running, you've got a support system right here. And me and Alec? We're pretty kick ass you know. The whole genetic mix and match they did with us."

Sam nodded. "Okay... so long as nothing comes after us we won't run. But you never know when the monsters will show up." He wanted to warn them that the monsters weren't just government organizations and scientists, but he didn't know how.

"Well, if you have to leave, you need to tell us, okay? Or we'll go looking." Max said as she passed him the sauce.

"We won't ditch ya." Sam said as he ladled on the sauce. "I promise." He didn't know if he would be able to keep that promise but he hoped so. He liked them, all of them. But sometimes that was exactly why you had to run. To keep people safe.

Alec looked at his watch. "Come on... let's go see about getting Sam and Max." He suggested, figuring it was about time for the kids to hit the sack but he wasn't going to put it that way to them. "I gotta get into Jam Pony early in the morning. Max is showing me a new route."

Dean pocketed the money he'd made off some people. More than enough for some blankets. "Hey, this was fun. Even with the questions." He was used to people asking careful questions. Alec didn't slide past him.

"I've got an eyesight on the oldest one." The man in the shadows said. "Your teams in position to track them?"

"Affirmative." Came the voice in return. "That's X5-494 he's with. Be prepared."

Alec chuckled. "How else do you expect me to sort it all out? Gotta ask questions to find things out."

"All right, point taken." Dean said. "My dad was really good at it. Getting people to talk about noises and strange occurrences without them thinking too much about it."

"Keep them in sight. If 494 dies, that's all right. There are no plans for him."

"He doesn't want the boy terrorized."

"He can either handle it or not. If he can't, obviously we're wrong about him."

"Yeah, you keep thinking that when you explain the situation. I'll just sit back and watch the show."

"Whatever, they'll be in a secluded area soon. We make our move then."

They took a short cut through an alley. That way they avoided a lot of the bums that were, by that time, more than likely far past drunk. It was while exiting the alley and back onto the street that the shot rang out. Loud, like a firecracker, and Dean yelped and groaned as he hit the ground, then worked his way back up.

Alec assessed the situation in a split second and scooped Dean up over his shoulder as though he were weightless.

"Put the kid down and walk away." Came a cold voice from the darkness. "I've got no beef with you. You can walk away."

"Nah, I'm gonna have to pass on the offer, thanks though." He said as he started backing away. He knew he shouldn't have let Max talk him out of carrying weapons.

Dean was wiggling over Alec's shoulder until he got his good arm into his jacket. "Here." He said, handing Alec a pistol. "There's a knife in my boots too."

"494." Ames White said. "For once this isn't about you. Just put the kid down, and we'll let you walk away."

Alec didn't bother saying another word. Images of the transgenics he had been forced to kill, the explosive at the base of his skill that nearly took his life. He lifted the gun and fired.

Ames was shoved out of the way by another man, who fell to the ground with a thud. Alec took off with a run, ducking behind buildings and trash. Not quite blurring, not with the extra, wiggling, bleeding weight, but close enough to lose them.

"Dammit." The man said, and slipped into his car. It was important that he reach his father first.

Alec sped through the back streets and alleys until he got to Joshua's house and came in through the back door. "Joshua!" He yelled as he headed into the living room and lay Dean down on the sofa. "Where were you hit?"

Dean shrugged Alec off and sat up, gingerly moving his shoulder. "Left shoulder." He said. "Dude, I'm fine."

Joshua came up and saw the two. "First aid!" He said and ducked back into the kitchen. "Little Fella gave me a kit." Dean started at Joshua, but stared for a moment.

"Huh. I was expecting worse. Dude, that picture of you was horrible." Dean said.

"Joshua forgot to smile." Joshua said, at an attempt at a joke.

Alec smiled a little at Joshua, then examined Dean's shoulder "Looks like it went through." He said, and started rummaging through the first aid kit. He dressed the wound before taking out his cell phone and calling Max.

"It's fine." Dean said.

Max answered her phone. "Hey Alec. You didn't get arrested, did you?" She said with a laugh, moving away from Sam and Logan. Just in case they DID get arrested. Sam was a kid. He didn't need to be exposed to what was going to come out of her mouth in that case.

"No... White found us when we were leaving Crash." He said. "Dean was shot, shoulder wound, through and through. It looks good, still has range of motion. Max...White wasn't after me this time, he was after Dean."

"Dude, you called Max?" Dean said as Joshua prodded at his shoulder.

"Sorry new friend." Joshua said with a wince.

"Doesn't hurt. Pain is a phantom of the mind." Dean said. "You called Max?"

Max stopped cold. "What did he say?" She said.

"Huh? Oh, he said pain is a phantom of the mind." Alec didn't know why that would be of interest to Max. "We're at Joshua's. Thinking this is a good place for them for a couple days till we figure out what White is up to. Thought you might want to prepare Sam before bringing him over."

"Yeah, yeah sure. We'll be there in a little while." She said. She was distracted. She didn't like what she was thinking either.

"Yeah, I called Max. So that she could protect Sam and prepare him for what happened. Anyway... Joshua, this is Dean, Dean this is Joshua."

"Yeah, we're old friends now." Dean said as Joshua wrapped his shoulder up in gauze. "I thought he'd be shorter."

"Joshua thought you would be taller." Joshua said with a grin, exposing his canine teeth. Dean laughed as he leaned against the couch.

"I'll get there." He said. "So Sam's coming, right? They were after me. Is this place even safe?" Was any where safe?

"We're safe." Alec said. "And you are safer with us than out there on your own right now." He added. "Don't worry. We won't let any thing happen to you or to Sam." He knew Dean's primary concern was Sam, so he addressed that concern. "No one followed us, and Max is careful everywhere she goes. She has been hiding in plain sight since she was 9."

"I got shot. They sounded like they had no problems killing you." Dean said. "This is so messed up, who were those guys? Does anyone know?"

"His name is Ames White. He wants to kill all transgenics. I think he shot you trying to shoot me... he wanted you alive." Alec said. "You'll be safe here until we get something figured out. Maybe Logan can get you guys sent up to Canada where you'll be safe." He didn't want that. He was never sure that Canada was any safer than the US was.

"Ames White." Dean repeated. Name didn't ring any bells. But the guy was maybe a toddler, if that, when Sam and Dean settled down for their naps anyway. "Canada sucks. At least it did 27 years ago." At least the parts their dad took them to, which was nothing but wilderness and near ghost towns. He looked up as Sam and Max came in. "Hey." He said with a grin toward his brother. "It's nothing. Doesn't even hurt."

"You always say that." Sam said as he came over to look at his brother. "You said that when you broke your arm, you said that when you got clawed up that time... I don't believe you." He said as he sat down giving Dean a worried look. Dean was always saying he was fine, or that it didn't hurt. Sam knew better.

"And I've been fine every time." Dean countered. "Still here, aren't I?" He said with a grin. "Sam, that's Joshua. Manticore whipped him up, threw a little too much dog in the tube though."

Max pulled Alec aside. "What happened?" She asked.

Alec explained everything to her, "They weren't trying to kill him, they were trying to take him alive. Me they wanted dead, big shock." He had no doubt in his mind that if he had done as they had said and put Dean down, he would be dead. Or at least they would have tried. "Both Manticore and White?" He shook his head. "I don't know what's going on, Max."

"That makes two of us." Max said taking a deep breath. "Hey, Dean, does it hurt?"

"Nope." Dean said as he passed his brother a sandwich Joshua had made for them.

"What was it you said before?" She said. "About phantom mind things?"

"Pain is a phantom of the mind." Dean said. "My dad taught me that. Lets you ignore pain as long as possible to get something done, you know, like running from people that want to kill you or your friends."

"Your dad?" She said and looked at Alec. "Okay, this is serious shit. When I tried to smack White around, he said the same exact thing."

Alec explained what had happened in complete detail, leaving nothing out. "I want to leave them here until we sort out what's going on." He said, glancing over his shoulder at the boys as they interacted with Joshua, who seemed to be loving the attention. "A little company would be good for Joshua too."

"Joshua loves company." Max agreed. "We'll have to watch that gun shot wound, who knows what Manticore did to him. And we need to find out what the hell Ames White is doing quoting John Winchester."

David walked into his father's house and into the study. "Dad?" He said. "There's been a problem. A huge problem." He said, all pale and shocked, nearly shaking.

John Winchester looked up from the files on his desk. "What's wrong, son?" He asked, frowning slightly. "Are you hurt?" He asked looking the young man over cautiously with a practiced eye. Inspecting for blood or other signs of injury.

"I'm fine." He said, sitting down across from John and brushing his dark hair out of his eyes. "We found Dean." He said, managing not to trip over the name. "We found him. The plan was to follow him back to Sam. But Ames....I don't know. Dean was walking with a transgenic, and Ames fired. Dean was hit."

Winchesters features clouded, and dark eyes darkened further. "How badly was he hit? " He asked. If either of those boys went down, it would be devastating. Not merely to himself as a father, having just found them after all this time. "What transgenic?" He was going to have to speak with Ames White, and remind him exactly why he needed to be more careful.

"Ames said X5-494." David said. "The same one that tried to double cross him, right? I can't believe Ames would try to fulfill a personal vendetta like this. Unless he was aiming for Dean? He doesn't believe the truth, you know."

"Given who his father is, I'm not surprised. Many of us go through periods of doubt." He himself had left the order long ago, following his heart foolishly. It had taken the loss of everything he loved to bring him home to his family, and to his place in the order. "But it does take both of my boys to fulfill the prophesy. I hope you understand that as well, David."

"I look forward to meeting my brothers. You know that." David said. "It's important that we're a family, especially with the prophesy. Of course, now that Ames has fired the first shot, and Dean was carried off with a transgenic, it complicates things." Sure, Ames didn't fire the shot. But that would be especially hard to prove.

"I need you to make this happen." He told David, looking into dark eyes so similar to his own. "I'm depending on you. " He reached into his desk drawer and took out a set of car keys. "You are going to have to be cautious. I taught them well. They won't trust anyone actively looking for them now. But this will get Dean's attention if nothing else will." He said shoving the keys across the desk at his … son. "Be seen in it. Eventually he will come to you."