A/N: Thanks to those who reviewed chapter one. I hope you all like this chapter as well!

Bonds of Trust

By: Ada C. Eliana

Chapter 2

"I still don't see why we couldn't take the bus," Teresa said as she climbed into the Impala, knocking mud off of her boots before resting them on the mats.

"Because it's a Volkswagen hippie-mobile," John said, realizing that maybe offending a stranger who was voluntarily helping to search for his son was pretty rude, even if that stranger did indeed drive a Volkswagen bus complete with oversized flowers and peace signs painted on the doors. Sighing, he said, "And because that would mean you would be driving, and I would really prefer to drive right now."

"Fair enough," Teresa conceded as he pulled out of Pastor Jim's driveway and headed towards the highway.

"So we never really officially met. I'm Teresa DiCarlo," she offered, watching him and wondering what it look like for the steering wheel to explode from the pressure of his grip.

"John Winchester," he practically growled.

"Charmed. So John, what happened to you kids? I just heard that they had been abducted when Jim called me, but I didn't get the whole story."

"I was working a job, the boys had stayed behind in the motel. When I got back they were both gone."

"You left your sons alone while you went off hunting?" she asked incredulously.

"Listen lady, I'm short on patience, so if you're about to start a 'you're a terrible parent!' rant I'd rather you just shove it."

"Sure thing, Johnny," she responded, eyes glinting with irritation. "What were you hunting anyway?"

"Vengeful spirit," John responded, giving her the bare minimum.

"Who was partnered with you?"

"No one."

"You hunt alone?"

"Sometimes. Tim passed this job along to me because it was pretty straight forward," John offered.

"Wow, good luck staying alive if you keep that up."

John did not say anything, but somehow Teresa thought that was more of a rebuke then anything else could have been.

They rode in silence for a long while, John's hands tight on the steering wheel as he thought about Sam and Dean, kidnapped, possibly about to be left tied up in the woods to be consumed by a demon that preyed on sacrificial children.

He really needed to get his mind off of this.

"So what was with the look Bobby gave you before we left? He partner me with you so you could keep me in line?" he asked gruffly. Teresa glanced at him from where she was slouched in the passenger seat, staring out the window. The sunlight glanced across her face and revealed a couple of well-healed scars on her cheek and neck.

"Well somebody's got to," she said.

"Excuse me? You don't even know me."

"I mean because you're the worried parent. Geez John it wasn't anything personal. You must be having a difficult time right now balancing 'father' and 'hunter'. Somebody has to stick close to you, make sure you don't do anything stupid." She shrugged again, then began fiddling with the buttons on her military-grade coat.

"And Bobby thought that maybe a woman's gentle presence could keep me in line?" he snorted. He didn't exactly mean to disrespect Teresa, but nothing could keep him calm right now, much less some random female hunter he'd never met.

"I think you'll find my presence to be anything but 'gentle' John. And as far as what Bobby may or may not have been thinking, the truth is that me and him have the most knowledge about what we're looking for so we had to split up. And Daniel isn't too thrilled about the whole 'demon' thing, so Bobby had to choose who would make his afternoon worse – him or you. I'm guessing he picked you and so shoved you off on me to take care of. But don't worry, I'm sure it was a tough choice." Her tone dripped with condescension.

"You sound like you know Bobby pretty well."

"I've known Bobby a long time," she said as she stared at the white lines of the road ahead of them, wondering why John had suddenly become chatty after almost 20 minutes of silence.

"How long is 'long'?"

"Since about… '73, '74? I don't really remember. Wild times though, I promise you that. But Bobby's a good hunter, and a great hunting partner. There are a lot of bastards in the world of hunting, John. Jackasses who would more than likely leave you to die if it suited them. That's why we have our little group with Father Jim, help to sort through the rabble."

"You sound like you have some experience with this."

"Well let's just say I can't quite forget the sight of my hunting partner's fleeing back while I bled out in the fucking desert," she said moodily.

"How did you get into this anyway?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" she questioned, suddenly guarded.

"You've known Bobby since maybe 1973, you must have been pretty young then, how did you end up hunting?"

Having anticipated that question, Teresa sighed and gave the standard answer she used to get curious hunters to back off. "That's a long story, John. I started up in the late '60s. Back then our go-to guy was Father Cristiano, not Father Jim. He helped me out a lot in the early years."

"But why?"

Teresa gritted her teeth. Apparently John was not the type to take a hint. "It's always for the same reason as everyone else isn't it?" she said, and she paused to turn back and look him in the eyes. "I lost someone I loved, there were definitely demons involved, and I couldn't live with myself unless I sought out the truth."

John's mouth went slightly dry. He had noticed loss to be a contributing factor to a career in hunting, it was why he had gotten into it after all. But for him it was all still raw, probably always would be. Teresa spoke of it matter-of-factly, years after the fact. John only prayed that when Sammy was 18 he still wouldn't be searching for Mary's killer. "And what did you find?"

"Not enough. Katrina disappeared without a trace, the only evidence left behind was the murdered priest of the church she had sought safety in. I met the demon responsible once, he decided it was more amusing to let me live than to kill me. He also told me that Katrina was dead. I never found her body, I probably never will, and I doubt I'll ever really know exactly what happened to her."

"How do you stand that… the not knowing?" John asked quietly.

"It's hard. I mean I'm sure you know that," she said softly. "Katrina wasn't… she was a sweet, gentle person and she didn't deserve it. And that burns, it always has. But I nearly destroyed myself and everyone around me searching for answers when the truth is those answers might not even be out there. Yeah the demon told me why he picked Katrina, why she died, but it didn't tell me everything else, what she was feeling, where she went when she disappeared, if she was frightened, if she had any idea that she was going to die, if she needed me there with her… if it hurt when she was killed…"

There was emotion in her voice, and so much that John could commiserate with, so much that he could understand. He had met a lot of hunters since he started out, and he had always felt defensive, as if none of them could possibly know what he felt like, the pain each day caused him. But he decided that maybe this Teresa DiCarlo woman was the first one who actually knew what it was like. And so he took a chance, went out on a limb, was honest with her. Even John Winchester needed someone to talk to about these things every now and then. And, gentle or not, sometimes sharing with a woman really was easier.

"My… my wife was murdered by something," John breathed quietly. "I just… I didn't know anything about what was out there, and when I saw her… pinned to the ceiling, burning alive… I just… I couldn't figure out what to do. And everything seemed dangerous, I felt like I couldn't trust my own shadow to not turn on me at some point. The more I learned… the better it's gotten, but I can't lose my boys, not to this, not to a demon."

Teresa regarded him silently for a moment and then said, "We do our jobs right and you won't have to."

"You got a compass, Winchester?" Teresa asked as John popped the trunk to the Impala and lifted the false bottom.

"Of course," John responded, grabbing the compass and some other supplies – mainly a rifle and some rock salt. He shoved the salt into his pockets along with some extra shells. The ride up had been interesting, but something about Teresa was bothering him in a way he couldn't really explain. She kept glancing at him when she thought he wasn't looking (and not in the cute flirty way he had gotten used to in high school), as if trying to work through something in her mind. It made him nervous, especially with his boys missing, and his reasonable suspicion that there wasn't enough evidence leading from his motel to this forest. He trusted Bobby, and Bobby trusted Teresa, but that wasn't good enough for him. He had gotten Teresa to talk to him in the car, he would have to try and push her into telling him what she found so interesting about John Winchester.

Teresa looked through her bag, taking inventory before she shouldered it, rifle in hand. She then stared out into the trees, waiting until John was ready to head up the path.

They tramped through the woods for hours before Teresa requested they take a break. The weather had been surprisingly good for early November, sunny and mild. Teresa sat down on a cliff face with a decent view, tossing her rifle on the rock beside her. Unzipping her bag she pulled out two sandwiches and a bottle of water. She tossed John a sandwich and then broke into her own, chewing it thoughtfully.

"What is on this?" John asked, staring at the contents as if it would bite him.

"Smoked mozzarella and capicola," she said as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world. "It's Italian food John, just eat it."

They sat in companionable silence for a while, the sounds of the forest all around them, before John finally broke it. "Who was Katrina to you?" he questioned. "Sister?"

Teresa looked up, dark eyes regarding him as she took a swig of water. "Friend," she shrugged. "But better than friend, companion I guess." She paused for a moment and then smiled shyly. "We both got jobs at this little diner and then played guitars on street corners on our days off. Hardly enough to pay the rent but it was great, you know, living life on our own terms, no demons peering at us from the shadows, not yet. Those were good times, before she started having nightmares and we realized what was after her." Teresa sighed before admitting, "I ran away from home at sixteen John, Katrina was all I had."

There was something in her glances again, something that told John that there was some sort of connection between this story and him, but he just couldn't figure it out.

She startled him when she spoke again. "Well since you're in the caring and sharing mood, how much do you know about your wife's murder, John?" Teresa questioned, curiosity and something John couldn't decipher in her eyes.

"Not any more than what I told you earlier," he answered. Teresa nodded. She seemed genuinely curious to John, but he wasn't quite sure why. "Come on, we have to keep looking for drop-off point or whatever Bobby called it."

Night had fallen by the time the hunters met up at Pastor Jim's house. Covered in mud and sweat, the group collapsed around the dining room table as Jim brought in dinner for them and discussed their findings.

"Not a shrub or cave or anything that looked like it could be the drop-off point," Daniel sighed. "And by the looks of you, I guess you didn't find anything either Johnny."

"No we didn't," John said, his tone defeated. "Tim, come on, give me some good news."

"There was nothing. Maybe Tressy got the location wrong," Tim shrugged.

"No, it has to be there," Bobby said, "we just didn't look hard enough. We'll rip that place apart tomorrow."

"It'll have to be there, I researched other possibilities, but what Teresa and Bobby came up sounds the most likely to me," Joshua said. "I think what y'all need to ask yourselves though is who kidnapped Johnny's kids? A person is holding them somewhere before setting them up to be sacrificed, maybe we should be looking in to that too, send half the group into the woods and the other into the town?" he suggested.

"Alright then, tomorrow morning we'll head out," Bobby said. "We're all going to need a good night's sleep before then."

John headed down to the room Jim had set aside for him and of all people – Daniel – to share. Before he climbed into bed, John turned to Daniel and said, "I'm a little surprised that you came." He genuinely was, considering not too long ago Daniel had kicked him out of his house and warned him to never come back again.

Daniel's expression soured. "Whatever I think of you John, I care about what happens to those boys. And don't it just beat all that Jim calls me to help with this?"

"What do you mean?" John asked, anger bristling.

"I told you John, I told you. You get involved in hunting, you drag those kids around the country with you and eventually something or someone's gonna decide that they're the tastiest prey out there. You say family means so much to you, that you're doing this for your wife and for your boys, but you're a damn liar John. You're doing this for yourself and no one else."

"Who the hell do you think you are?" John demanded.

"Shut the hell up Winchester! I hope you're happy with yourself Johnny, because if we get there too late tomorrow and those kids die, it'll be no one's fault but your own, and you'll have to live and die with that hanging over your head," Daniel growled.

"You don't realize how lucky you are John. You lost your wife, yes, but you have your kids. You look at the other hunters here – Bobby, Teresa, Tim, Josh – you think they have anyone? You think they have a family and people who love them just for sharing the same blood? You think I have family? Damn it all John, we ended up in this life because of what we lost, and because the revenge was all we had. But you still have a choice, you can have something different. And God help you if when those boys are in your arms again you make the wrong decision."

John opened and closed his mouth, not sure what to say now. He felt emotionally and physically drained and exhausted, and he lacked the energy for the verbal sparring, lacked the will to back up his own righteous claims.

"Get some sleep, tomorrow's gonna be a big day for you," Daniel muttered, lying down and pulling the blankets up to his chin.

A/N: Drop me a comment and let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading!

-Ada