Chapter Two: Working It Out

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There's a short pause on the other end of the phone, then, "Where are you?"

"Seattle," Dean replies. "Are you -" he begins, but then, he really has no idea how to even start asking Sam the questions he wants to ask. Finally, he settles on a statement instead. "I think I've been Freaky Friday'd."

"Funny, that's what the guy wandering around in your meatsuit said, too."

"So I'm ... still there, then?" Dean asks, incredibly relieved. He'd had to figure out the djinn world himself, but this Sam sounds like his Sam from his world. Dean has a lot more faith in this getting solved quickly with Sam's help than if he has to do it all on his own. The relief has him blurting out, "This is royally screwed up, Sam, I look kinda like me, but it's not me."

There's a pause, and then Sam asks, "You think this guy is a witch? Or a monster that can change shapes, or what?"

"I don't know what to think. I haven't seen any weird spelling crap around here. Or any other obvious clues as to what the hell is going on." It's true. He'd certainly have noticed any kind of magical paraphernalia in his search of the apartment that morning, unless the guy whose skin he's in was a heck of a lot better at hiding things than Dean was at finding them. "I don't know if he did this, but I don't think the guy is totally 100% human." Dean plans to try holy water and silver tests at the first possible opportunity. The former should be easy enough, but considering the general state of Seattle at the moment, he's not entirely sure where he'll conveniently find real silver. That's a problem for later, though. Right now there was something else he needed to tell Sam. "That's not all, dude. Last I remember, it was 2007."

"Uh, yeah, Dean, it still is," Sam answers, managing to sound both condescending and confused at the same time. It's a gift of Sam's that his brother is well familiar with.

"Not according to the calendars around here, it's not. They all say 2020."

"Dude, what the hell?" There's a pause, and then Sam asks, his voice clearly not speaking into the phone, "What year is it?"

"Huh," Sam says absently. "Bodysnatcher guy says it's 2020, too."

There's another short silence. "It can't be both, right? Or else how could I be talking to you?"

It's a completely rhetorical question because none of this makes any sense. Sam sighs. "I'm at Bobby's. We're gonna take a look at his books. I'll call you back when we've got something, alright?"

Dean says goodbye and hangs up the phone, disappointed. He supposes it would be too much to hope for that they would have already figured out the whole thing even before he called. He should be grateful Sam is even able to talk to him and isn't some weird alterna-Sam. Still, hanging out in a grungier version of Seattle trying to pretend to be some guy he knows nothing about isn't Dean's idea of a good time.

He gets himself up and in to Alec's work on time the next day, simply to have something to do. He'd figured when the bitchy chick had never really noticed anything was off that he was doing a good enough job impersonating the kid, but that may have been overconfidence on his part. At least that's what Dean figures when he's immediately cornered by a goofy looking guy named Sketchy who wants to know why he didn't show up at someplace called Crash the night before. Dean tries to shrug it off as just feeling like taking a night in, but it's clear from the expression on the guy's face he's not entirely buying it. Thankfully, it looks more like concern than suspicion, so Dean makes a promise to show up that night and then rushes to get some packages to deliver. Dean probably should have realized this Alec guy would have more friends at work than just that one chick who would expect him to know them.

Crash, it turns out, is a biker bar. Not biker in the sense of those he and Sam have been frequenting for hustles most of their lives, but biker as in bike messengers. Still, there's alcohol and pool tables, so it's not exactly a hardship for Dean to spend what would be an otherwise fruitless evening staring at the TV in Alec's apartment there.

There's just a couple hitches to the night. First, Sketchy has to be soothed a little after Dean goes easy on him at the pool table. Hey, the kid is this Alec's friend and he's completely lousy at the game but implied the two of them regularly played for money. Dean didn't figure he could really be blamed for assuming Alec must also suck at pool and played accordingly. Second, bitchy chick, who Dean finally catches the name Max in reference to, comes in with some nerdy looking guy with glasses who has to be at least a decade older than her. If the sappy lovelorn looks between them are any indication, he's probably her boyfriend. Unfortunately, no one greets the guy by name, and he tries to strike up a conversation with Dean when they both end up going to the bar at the same time.

When Dean falters through not remembering the last conversation the guy had with Alec, glasses starts talking down to him like a condescending dick. There's no way Dean would normally put up with it, but he tells himself he's not Dean right now and manages to endure the lecture. Of course, being a dick might just be the guy's normal state, because no one else looks surprised by his attitude as the man just keeps talking at him while they head back to the rest of the group. In trying to avoid further conversation, Dean asks the guy for a game of pool and then – since Sketchy lead him to believe Alec is at least nearly as good as Dean - soundly kicks the guy's ass. Hey, glasses was a douche, but it still surprises him when it ends with both Max and her old man glaring at him for some reason. Okay, that might have been because he capped off the sound beating with something along the lines of, "Hey, man, not my fault you suck at this."

It's not really late at that point, but Sketchy is nearly passed out drunk and Dean is left with just the glaring duo for company. There had been another friend of Max's that was apparently part of their group, another hot chick in a leopard print halter and sparkly eye shadow, but she'd left to go hit on a pretty blonde girl at the bar more than an hour ago and since disappeared. Dean doesn't see the need to put up with these two killjoys any longer when they clearly don't even like this Alec kid he's pretending to be. Why they're hanging out together is pretty much a complete mystery from his end, and he's beyond caring about the reasons for it at the moment, so Dean makes his excuses and goes out to where he's parked Alec's motorcycle. A vehicle he'd been clued in to the existence of by one of Alec's neighbors banging on his door that afternoon to complain about where it had been left parked.

Unfortunately, Max doesn't seem satisfied with his bailing and follows him out, which he discovers when she swings for his head. Not sure why she's attacking him, or what she and Alec are since he still hasn't worked out a good way to subtly ask yet, he doesn't pull his punches or treat her as any less than he would any dangerous unknown supernatural creature, taking full advantage of this borrowed body's assets. Two days at work had showed his boss didn't expect much work out of Alec, so Dean had spent a few hours between packages exploring what he could now do. He'd also managed to track down something silver at a pawn shop, but handling the letter opener as the paranoid shop keeper looked on hadn't answered any of his questions.

After they exchange a few blows, she goes down hard on the pavement, and he forces her to stay there until she stops trying to struggle her way back up or distract him enough to let her go. When he does finally let her free and backs out of easy reach, she eyes him with a wary respect that has been completely absent before now. Shit, so much for playing along.

"What the hell, Alec, you've never fought like that before."

Dean shrugs, and shakes out his shoulders a bit. She may not be a match for him, but she is way stronger than she should be for a girl her size. She's definitely a threat, even with Alec's body and his training. He's going to have to get to the bottom of the mystery of just what kind of creature these kids are sooner rather than later. Especially if he's just tipped her off and got himself in real trouble here.

She does not take kindly to his non-answer, and all but shrieks, "You ass! You're saying you've been letting me win? Like you apparently let Logan win at pool last time?"

Already so very tired of her and ready to be back home as well as relieved that she seems to be willing to manufacture her own explanation for his behavior, he smirks and says, "Clearly."

"Why?"

The current pitch of her voice is giving him a headache, so he goes with the sarcastic answer that's jumped to the tip of his tongue. "I don't know, maybe I was hoping you'd be less of a complete bitch!"

She makes a sound of outrage and swings for him again, but it does her no more good than the last attempt, and she seems to finally realize she's not going to win and backs off, still looking disconcerted and unhappy. "What is up with you lately, Alec?"

"Nothing!" Dean snaps defensively, before getting a better hold on himself. He really hopes he hears something back from Sam soon. Bad enough he's stuck far from home and has no idea how to do anything to help himself, but trying to play a specific person according to other people's expectations without any kind of guide is wearing heavily on him already. "Nothing," he says more calmly, "Maybe I just got sick of pretending."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She plants her hands on her hips and is clearly intending to stall him here until she gets some kind of answer she likes. Not happening.

"Just back off, already!" He snaps, and quickly dashes over to hop on and start up the motorcycle. She jumps out of the way when he doesn't slow down, and he just barely makes out her voice yelling what she thinks is his name fading out behind him over the roar of the engine as he accelerates away.

Dean stomps his way up to Alec's apartment, his mood not getting any less foul after the drive home. Sure, motorcycles are cool and all, but it's not the same as his car. He misses his Baby, and on top of that he misses his brother, and he's sick of trying to pretend to be this Alec kid that he doesn't understand. First of all, he's not even sure what the kid is, and that kind of freaky would be enough bad to be going along with. In his experience, non-human has always been a bad thing, and unknown non-human even worse. Sure, he's not having any urges to snack on innocent civilians yet, but who knows whether or not that's just around the corner? There are plenty of monsters that can go days, weeks, even years without feeding.

Then you add in that Alec's life just kind of sucks. Bike messenger? Yeah, Dean can see how the all-purpose sector pass it gets the kid is extremely useful, but it doesn't pay well and it's boring and tedious. Of course, from what he's learned so far from a few phone calls, Alec isn't getting most of his income from the messenger business. He's also honestly not sure how to count the boss' creepy obsession with the kid, either. On the one hand, Dean is sure he could get away with pretty much anything including not coming in to work at all with the flimsiest of excuses. On the other, having Normal – and having a name like Normal has got to be the least normal thing ever – practically drool on him is just off-putting.

The part really getting Dean down though is that the kid doesn't really seem to have any family or even good friends. That Sketchy kid seems to genuinely like him, but even aside from being kind of a dope, a few subtle questions have made it clear he doesn't know much of anything about Alec. He doesn't even know where the guy's apartment is! So they can't actually be all that close. Original Cindy was mostly nice enough to his face, but it's pretty clear she's Max's friend through and through. Which comes down to Max and Logan who pretty clearly just can't stand him. Yet Max seems to be all over his ass all the time, and seems to think it's strange Dean wants to get the hell away from her. He just doesn't get why this kid is wasting his time with these people. Maybe it's the nonhuman thing? Dean just doesn't know other than it sucks and he wants to go home.

He'd like to at least hear back from Sam, who is supposed to be doing the research on his end on how to fix this weird mix up. He tries to be patient at first and wait for Sam to call back with some kind of an update, but days start going by with no word at all. It's too much for Dean's impatience to stand. Unfortunately, when he dials Sam's number from Alec's phone a second time, all he gets is a weird buzzing noise coming down the line he's never heard a phone make before. It freaks him out more than a little, and after a couple panicked redials and almost smashing Alec's phone in anger, he ends up going back to that bar, Crash, and trying to get drunk. Which is another thing he plainly hates about being Alec; it doesn't matter how many shots he throws back, the kid's body just will not get more than a little buzzed. It's like the final cherry on top of the crap sundae of living this kid's life.

Hating the helplessness and unsure if Sam will be able to contact him again, Dean gets desperate enough to track down a library. It's dilapidated and the computers and internet actually seem to be slower and less helpful than they were in 2007, which is downright weird. At least it does clear up a few things he's been really wondering about, because when he goes back to his own time to look ahead, the biggest news story is something called the Pulse. He had noticed this was a completely crappy future version of Seattle, but his personal issues had been taking up far too much of his concentration to care about finding out what the deal was with that.

In addition to learning about the Pulse, the other thing he figures out is that this definitely isn't his own universe. Or at least not the version he's familiar with. With the incident he'd just been through with the djinn so fresh in his mind, he'd looked up a few of their biggest cases, to see if he and his family had existed as hunters here to save those people. Except he can't find any record of any of those incidents happening at all – not even the things that had led he and Sam to the hunts in the first place. Going back as far as he can, he can't find any records for him or Sam or their parents, or even their grandparents existing in Lawrence, Kansas, either.

He also can't find any genuine occult sites online. Of course there's the fake crap from the new age wiccans and ghost hunters similar to those Ghostfacer guys, but nothing that has any validity. They don't know any of the basics about hunting beyond those that have slipped out into the mainstream culture, like silver killing shifters and werewolves. Dean's not entirely sure the supernatural even exists here, and that means if he's cut off from Sam, he's not only ill-equipped to help himself, it's quite possibly impossible for him to do so.

In the end, he leaves the library with more questions than answers. He hadn't wanted to think too hard about the strange time discrepancy when he'd talked to Sam, but if they really are in different universes, that could account for it. Well, at least he figures that's so, it's not like different universes is a thing you run into terribly often as a hunter. Of course, that doesn't explain how he was able to contact Sam at all, if that was his Sam he contacted. This world still feels real, he isn't having any of the kinds of flashes he did in the djinn hallucination, and Alec is clearly not him in some fundamental ways. He can't think of anything other than a djinn or the trickster that could create a world this thoroughly and it doesn't feel like the former and they killed the only version of the latter they'd ever run afoul of. He's not at the point of fatally injuring himself to try and wake up – yet. If he can't manage to get back through to Sam again somehow though, he's really not sure how long it might take for that to become an option.

…

Alec listens closely through the door, trying to hear both ends of the relatively short phone conversation going on in the other room. Considering the crap body he's currently in, it would have been a lost cause if not for the guy who knocked him out and trussed him up putting the phone on speaker almost immediately so that his friend can listen in. Thankfully, it's quiet enough in the basement Alec can hear most of the conversation, too, since the small window in the heavy door he's locked behind is open.

Alec is used to dealing with weird, Manticore made sure of that, but this is a whole new ballpark of weird. This Sam guy is talking on the phone to a voice that sounds like his about how it's 2007. Of course, that's not half so distressing as when the guy on the other end of the phone who's apparently in his skin right now outs him as not being completely human. It makes him go cold all over. These guys have already tossed him into a locked cell just for not being this Dean guy, he doesn't want to know what they might do with that piece of information.

The only thing he can hold on to at the moment is that he is inside this Dean guy's body, because it's definitely less awesome than his own. Surely, no matter how backwards and prejudiced they might be, surely they won't risk hurting the body he's in. He hopes not, at least.

The phone conversation ends, and Sam and the older man have a hushed conversation he only catches a few words he can make sense of, but it mainly seems to be rehash of what they just heard anyway with a few wild theories involving things like time travel and alternate universes thrown in. His companion, whom Sam refers to as Bobby, grumps and says he'll get started on puling his books about transference, time travel, magic and whatever else might help. Alec listens as Bobby's heavy footfalls head back up the stairs. As there's the sound of only one pair of feet heading up, he expects Sam has hung around to say something to him. So Alec waits and waits, getting increasingly impatient.

Bored and curious, he does his best to peer through the grille on the window in the door and see what Sam's doing, but the guy appears to just be staring morosely at he phone in his hand. Alec snorts, unimpressed. That's not going to get anybody back where they belong any time soon, and he's got a vested interest here. "Hey!" He yells out, and Sam starts and looks over, almost as if he's forgotten the guy he knocked out and put in a ready-made dungeon his friend just happened to have in his basement. Yeah, and Alec's the one they're worried about being a freak! "How long are you going to leave me in here? No TV or anything? C'mon!"

Sam looks at him through the small opening calculatingly. "Depends. What are you?"

"I'm a bike messenger from Seattle," Alec replies, the snark hopefully hiding the trepidation he feels. Ordinaries do not deal well with finding out you aren't completely human in his experience. Sure Max had tripped over Original Cindy and Logan, but considering how willing this guy had already shown himself to pull a gun on Alec? Yeah, admitting to being a government science project isn't likely to make Sam feel any cuddlier about him. Unfortunately, Alec knows well enough he's not going to be able to avoid answering the question for very much longer. Damn this Dean guy anyway for his big stupid mouth.

Sam's voice brings Alec back into the moment. "Sure. See, the thing is, my brother's running around in your skin in 2020 and he says you're not exactly human. So I'll ask again, what are you?"

"Hey, does it really matter?" Alec asks, a little desperately. Then he adds for good measure, "After all, I'm in your brother right now, apparently, and he's definitely 100% boringly ordinary human."

Sam laughs, but it's not truly a happy sound. "I really wish Dean was here himself to take offense to that. Doesn't matter if you're in a human for the moment. If you've got the instincts of some kind of monster, there's no telling what you'll do."

"Oh, because of course, if I'm not completely human I must be a monster that deserves to be put down?" Alec knows this is a volatile situation and he should try to control his temper better, but he's spent most of his life being treated like an animal or an expensive piece of property by turns. He's enjoyed the freedom he's had lately too much not to be angry when someone tries to reduce him back to that again. He knows this guy is dangerous, but as usual, controlling his tongue isn't exactly his first impulse anymore.

"Hey, man, you're the one that keeps avoiding the question here," Sam says, shrugging. The intense look in his eyes and the tenseness of his frame belie the nonchalance he's attempting, though. "Makes it seem like you've got something to hide."

Alec had expected the guy to get angry, but it's almost as if the snark makes Sam feel a little more at ease. Maybe he and this Dean guy are more alike than just looking like each other. If that's the case, he might as well play into it. "Because I really want to admit anything to the crazy guy who has a dungeon in his basement he's got me locked in. That seems like a great idea."

Sam gives him a sharp smile. "It is if you ever want to get out of that room."

Crap. Alec tries to weigh the pros and cons in his mind, but when it comes down to it, there's not really a choice here. Besides, he is still in Dean for the moment, and that gives him some security – Alec's especially sure of that now having seen how Sam reacted to Dean's phone call. "I'm a transgenic."

There's a silence from the other side of the door, and Alec peers out, but Sam just looks confused. Finally, the guy asks, "And that would be what, exactly?"

"Some wacky government scientists mixed a bunch of human DNA with other animal DNA in a test tube trying to make super soldiers with enhanced abilities. A little cat, a little dog, a little this, a little more of that, and we're faster, stronger, smarter, better than ordinary humans."

"So what was the bit about being a bike messenger? Because that doesn't sound like a job for a government created super soldier, somehow."

Alec shrugs, though he doubts Sam can see the movement. "The program got exposed and they tried to charbroil us to cover the whole thing up, but some of us got lucky and escaped. Messenger work makes it easy to get around the city without suspicion."

"Huh."

"That's all you've got to say," Alec asks, incredulously. Okay, so maybe he should be glad the guy isn't reaching for his gun or anything, but seriously, that's not the way normal people react to crazy government conspiracy theories. Then again, Sam hadn't exactly reacted in a way Alec would consider normal to the whole body swapping fiasco, either.

"Well, it's actually crazy enough I'm tempted to believe you. If you were just making something up, it'd probably sound less like something out of Weekly World News."

Alec snorts. "So let me out? I mean, it's not like I've got any super abilities now. Unfortunately." The last word he mutters to himself, far too low for Sam to hear.

"What are you going to do if I let you out?" Sam asks, his tone fairly neutral. Even as well as he's been trained to try and gauge expressions, Alec can't make out what Sam might be thinking.

"Honestly, man, from the sound of it I'm relying on you and Grumpy Bearded Guy to get me back in my own skin. So it sounds like I'll be doing whatever the hell you want me to."

Sam closes his eyes and runs his hand over his face. "So you heard all that, huh?"

"Heard, yes. Believe?" Alec pauses, and Sam stares into his eyes through the grate separating them. "That I'm not so sure about. But then again, I know this isn't my body, so I'm not sure this not being my body in the year 2007 is all that much less believable. Unless I've just gone crazy, but that still doesn't explain you and your ready-made dungeon."

Sam sighs and goes over to a table on the side of the room to grab something, and Alec's heart sinks for a moment, thinking the guy is just going to walk off and leave him. Fortunately, he's wrong as Sam shortly comes back over to the door and starts to unlock it before pausing for a moment. "Look. I'm not sure if you're just telling me what I want to hear or not, but if you are this isn't your fault, so I'm going to give you a chance. But you're right, I am your only way to get back where you belong. So you'd better consider that long and hard before you even think about doing anything but helping us research how this happened and how to reverse it."

The heavy door swings open between them, and Sam watches him warily, clearly waiting to see what he's going to do. Alec simply steps out into the room slowly, not making any sudden movements. He doesn't know what the hell is going on. He doesn't entirely trust these guys, even though they seem to have accepted his story. Maybe especially because they have, since his story is nuts. Alec really can't see any other choice here, though, because at least they seem to know something about what's going on, which is more than he has on his own. Sadly, even if the only real reasons he's got to trust them is that they believe him and haven't yet tried to kill him, that still puts them ahead of all too many of the people he's known.

Sam sighs again and gestures towards the stairs. "Alright, let's go upstairs and see if Bobby's got anything."