Disclaimer: Don't own any Winchesters or X5s

Alone or Clone?

Chapter 2: Finding Family

Dean woke with a start, not realizing he'd fallen asleep. His neck was stiff and his back ached from sleeping upright. The awful chair had springs digging into his body. Realizing why he slept a few hours in the chair instead of on a lumpy mattress, he glanced towards the empty bed. The boy was gone.

He slumped back into the springs letting them dig deeper into him. He didn't feel them as he went numb with grief. Whether he'd dreamed up the boy or he'd left it didn't really matter. He was truly alone. He dropped his heavy head into his hands and fought against the building tears he hadn't let fall in years. It seemed he was forever doomed to remain alone.

"Is this the good place?" Dean's head jerked up to meet the pale face of his little mirror image. Tear filled eyes meet a matching pair as they both took in their striking similarities. Almost against his will, Dean gave a curt nod, anything had to be better then the hell the boy had come from. The boy cocked his head as if listening and studied him until finally, he nodded as well.

"Sir, you do the will of the Lady. You destroy the anomalies."

"What?" He wanted to reach out and touch the boy to make sure he was real, but he restrained himself to just staring.

"You destroy the anomalies, Sir," The boy repeated reverently holding out a leather-bound book. Dean wanted to simultaneously to grab it possessively and throw it so he'd never have to see it again. Dean knew the darkness that lay in those pages; he'd experienced them and written them all down himself. He did not want his little clone to be tainted by it at a young age as well. His own personal hell in the form of a hunting journal; made to emulate his father's.

"Sir, my name is Ben," The blanket-clad boy introduced as if he would never get over saying his own name aloud.

"Dean," The adult answered in a hoarse but hopeful voice.

"The Blue Lady sent you to save me. So we can serve her by destroying the anomalies. Sir, you're my donor," The boy finished with a smile.

"Ben I…" Dean floundered, not sure what to say.

"Nobody gets punished. Nobody disappears."

"You're right Ben," Dean choked out fighting against his own mental demons.

"The Blue Lady will protect us if we believe in her."

"Angels are watching over you," Dean mumbled remembering something his mother used to tell him as a little boy.

They talked until the sun came up. They'd moved to the table as the little boy tried to explain the Hydra-like super soldier program to the Hunter. In turn, Dean tried to give a glossed over version of the supernatural to his little clone. Once finished they sat in silence studying one another, unsure what to do next.

"I've got to go for supplies," Dean decided suddenly looking around the barren room and poorly clad boy.

"You'll be back?"

"As soon as I can," Dean promised before grabbing the remote and turning on some old family sitcom. He quickly showed Ben how to work the TV. Watching the familiar glazed look Sammy always got watching his favorite show. Dean smirked. It seemed even child super soldiers were glued to the screen.

"If I can't call you Sir, what do I call you?" Ben asked quietly so as not to break the magical spell of a TV family's life; his eyes still glued to the moving pictures.

Dean hesitated at the door, glancing at the TV, before answering, "Dad."