Chapter Three: Overconfidence
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Max is leery of him for about three days before her inherent bitchiness reasserts itself and she comes up to him a couple different times and tries to start a fight, almost as if she's just trying to prove to herself she's not afraid of him. Dean had gotten the impression she was used to Alec being too laid back to generally really fight her, so he does his best to ignore and avoid her. Her volatility convinces him not to ask any of the lingering questions about what the two of them are unless it becomes absolutely necessary. She knows something is up with him, but she doesn't actually know what, and the last thing he wants to do is clue her in any further or tip anyone else off. So he does his best to continue playing dumb with an extra bit of effort put towards coincidentally only being around her in a crowd or not at all.
So it's another three days before she corners him between the lockers at Jam Pony with Original Cindy's assistance and asks him why he's avoiding Josh. Since Dean has absolutely no clue who the heck Josh is, he mutters a vague denial about being busy. By now, he isn't even really afraid she'll clue in that he's not Alec; Dean should probably be glad no one in the kid's life seems to know him well enough to tell someone else is walking around in his skin, but it's just kind of sad. He tunes out the resulting harangue about how he's being a bad friend to this Josh guy. Who is apparently some kind of shut in since evidently he and Max are sharing duty keeping him company because he can't go out and see people himself. She demands they go together after work to see the guy, and Dean agrees just to get her to shut up because he's already learned there isn't much point in arguing with her. Besides, if they go together, he doesn't have to try and figure out how to get to the home of some random guy only knowing a first name.
He expects to have to listen to her bitching him out the whole ride over to this guy's place, but they take their motorbikes. Thankfully they're loud enough to prevent any unwanted conversation, and Dean already has two or three excuses in mind of how he's going to have reason to leave shortly if she gets too obnoxious.
Dean is damn lucky Max goes in first and gives Joshua a big hug, because it allows him time to recover from his first instinct to reach for a gun before either of them can notice. Well, now he knows why the guy is a shut in, because JoJo the Dogface boy is certainly not going to be out roaming the streets without causing a commotion. He really wishes he could ask what the hell the guy is, but Alec surely already knows, so he can't. Although it makes him wonder all over again what Alec is, since the kid isn't completely human and is clearly spending time with others who aren't either.
He's nervous around the big guy – someone taller and hairier than Sam is pretty disconcerting – but Joshua, face and minor speech issues aside, seems like a pretty normal dude. Almost too nice, even, though he does keep shooting Dean looks that Dean is pretty sure are concern or confusion. For the first time since he arrived here and met most of the people Alec hangs out with, Dean wonders if he's giving himself away somehow. Joshua doesn't actually say anything though, and Dean gradually relaxes.
The evening isn't a complete waste of awkward worries, though, because he does hear one new thing. Joshua says something about them being from a place called Manticore. Dean doesn't know what that is, but any place Joshua has come from has got to be a very interesting sort of place. So the next day, he finds his way back to the library. Unfortunately, he also finds himself mostly thwarted. There's an archive of a television broadcast several months ago from some pretentious cyberhacker with an oddly familiar voice outing a government project to create genetically engineered super soldiers. Holy conspiracy theories, right? But the more he thinks about it, and about the abilities this body he's in has, the more he's willing to go with it.
Especially after a round of careful questions to an inebriated Sketchy clue him in to the fact that Alec only moved to Seattle after this government place blew sky high, and Max came back from supposedly having a heart transplant around the same time. His first instinct is always to suspect something supernatural, but since he's found even less evidence of that in this world than he has of government conspiracies, he decides to go with this as the reigning theory. At least until one of his calls to Sam manages to go through or he finds out otherwise. Not being able to directly ask anyone questions is frustrating as hell. He's thought about just putting it out there to Max who, despite her personality, seems to be on top of a lot of things. The problem is he really doesn't know what the potential consequences might be and things seem safe enough for now. It'd be different if he thought there was any chance he'd find out something that would get him home faster, but all these mysteries seem to lead back to what Alec is and be unrelated to how Dean got here.
Things get a little weird a few days later when Max comes into Jam Pony and immediately walks over to start being oddly nice to him. It freaks him out, and he demands to know what she's after. She huffs and says they've got a job for Eyes Only – the cyberhacker guy from the TV report he'd found about Manticore. He's kind of interested in what that's all about, and he's quite frankly bored with nothing but Alec's job and hanging out with Alec's friends night after night. She seems a little suspicious of his easy acquiescence, but he just shrugs it off and tells her truthfully he has nothing better to do.
After work he heads out after her and they go to some swanky penthouse apartment to be briefed about a job by her lame boyfriend guy. Which explains why the hacker in the broadcast seemed weirdly familiar. Dean can't believe no one's outed the guy if his attempts at disguising himself are that transparent, but hey, it's not even Alec's problem, let alone Dean's. They go and steal some data disks from some criminal kingpin, and it's kind of a rush. Even better, they have to be quiet so he doesn't have to listen to Max snarling at him the whole time, although the looks she keeps shooting him drive him crazy enough that as they're exiting the place he asks, "What?"
"You'd tell me if you're in trouble again, instead of hiding it badly so I have to come an bail your ass out at the last minute, right? Because I'm not interested in doing that again, Alec." She almost sounds genuinely concerned.
It's enough to keep Dean from snapping at her. Instead, he says, "What makes you think I'm in trouble?"
Max gives him a bit of a shrug before straddling her bike. "I dunno. You're just all weird lately. Quiet."
Dean snorts, because he's pretty sure whatever he chooses to do as this Alec kid annoys her. He starts up his own bike, and calls out just before taking off, "I can't even remember how many times you've told me to shut up just in the last week, but now you're saying I don't talk enough? Make up your mind."
He expects that to be the end of it, but she stops him with a hand to the arm before they enter the elevator to go back up to boyfriend's digs to give him the disks they swiped. "I mean it, if you've got yourself in a jam again -"
Dean shrugs her off. "Look, Max. Nothing is going on."
"Then why are you always avoiding me lately if you're not hiding some stupid scheme?" she huffs. He's honestly surprised she's even noticed, maybe she is more perceptive than he's given her credit for.
Still, Dean rolls his eyes and brushes her off. "You don't like me. You've made that more than clear, so why are you complaining?"
"I'm not!" she exclaims quickly, but then her brow furrows and she goes on, "Never bothered you before."
"I must be getting smarter in my old age, then," Dean says with a smirk.
Max rolls her eyes at him, but keeps glancing at him sideways as they ride the elevator up to Logan's penthouse. Dean ignores it, mostly. Maybe he should be trying harder to placate her, but he just really can't be bothered. Maybe if he thought she was genuinely this Alec kid's friend he'd be more worried about screwing up their relationship, but as it is, he figures if she starts leaving him alone Dean would have done the guy a solid.
Listening to her boyfriend – Logan, he finally figures out is the man's name – drone on and on about whoever this mob boss is and all the things he's got proof now about him having done isn't exactly a thrill a minute. Dean figures it pretty much balances out, because the part where they actually got to break into the guy's place was enjoyable. Hey, it's not exactly taking down monsters, and Dean feels it's a little silly because some other bad guy will just step into this one's place if this Eyes Only thing is successful at using the information he and Max just stole, but he's been feeling itchy in Alec's skin with not enough to do, so it's better than nothing.
He's almost tempted to ask, as the days continue to go by, if the guy doesn't have more missions for him to be doing. Sure, bike messenger isn't exactly a sedentary job, and he's taken up pool hustling like going back to an old friend after finding out Alec did that, too. He's even been trying to field a few of the calls from contacts the kid gets for various sundry trades and schemes, though they've been dwindling a bit. Dean assumes that's probably because he's not out seeking new ones, but as much as Dean knows about cons, he doesn't know the city or Alec's contacts enough to truly get much going. So a little espionage for the guy's one man crusade for truth, justice, and fluffy puppies or whatever, if ridiculous, is at least a way to fill the time and burn off some of his restless energy.
Unfortunately, Logan just gets more and more increasingly suspicious when what he thinks is Alec drops by to volunteer for stuff. Even when he does have something for Dean to do, he's never remotely grateful, and he has the nerve to complain when a job nearly goes bad or yields no results, even when it's his own faulty intel that trips things up. Dean gives up seeking him out as a lost cause when he gets the third lecture from Max about harassing Logan and repeats her demands he tell her what kind of trouble he's gotten into and is trying to cover up now. Considering how she's treated him, Dean shouldn't be surprised she won't take his word for the fact he's not in any trouble, but that doesn't make it any less annoying. It also seems like the more he tries to avoid her, the more insistent she is about trying to track him down. At work, at Crash, at his apartment. He actually catches her following him when he goes out for a random drive around the city on his motorcycle. He figures he'll ditch her by going into a local strip club, but he's more than a little amused when she manages to follow him inside there, too. Especially since he knows they only let girls in who are willing to work the floor.
He hadn't really wanted to do anything to draw attention to the kid before, but the more time passes the more Dean prioritizes his own boredom over that. He tries looking for hunts, since there's nothing else to do. Unfortunately, that's just as much of an exercise in frustration as everything else as been, because he still can't seem to find anything that looks remotely like it's supernatural in origin. Even the weirdest of the weird tabloids are mostly full of things that are relatively harmless escapees from Manticore, including Joshua's very own front page spread, it turns out. The most frustrating part is Dean's not sure whether there just isn't a supernatural world active here, or if the news outlets have been so scattered and cut back in the aftermath of the Pulse that things just aren't getting reported. Since there's no longer a daily paper even for as large of a city as Seattle is, his access to the information isn't what it would be back home. He'd like to believe there just isn't anything lurking in the dark here, since he can't find any signs of hunters or traditional monsters, but that's just too optimistic for Dean to believe.
Since Max bugged him about it, Dean does make it a point to go by and visit Joshua every few days. It's always just slightly uncomfortable, though. Oh, the big guy is amiable enough, no question. Dean just can't quite shake the feeling Joshua knows he's not Alec. Not that he accuses Dean of having body-swapped his friend or gets hostile at all, but he's always eyeing Dean strangely. Gradually Dean relaxes and forgets it, since Joshua doesn't seem to actually be doing anything about whatever suspicions he might have. Turns out that was a mistake.
As it was, maybe he would have clued Max in that something was wrong anyway when he gave her a blank, uncomprehending stare when she cornered him at Jam Pony between runs to whisper something about lasers and barcodes. It wasn't until after she'd told him to stop being an idiot and stomped off that he remembered reading all the freaks from Manticore were supposed to be branded with barcodes on the back of their necks. Sure enough, when he went home that evening and twisted himself around to try and peer with a mirror at the back of Alec's neck, he could see there were some dark lines emerging from the skin. It was probably a good thing he'd always had a habit of wearing his collars popped and hadn't yet given in to the urge to get Alec a more familiar haircut to reduce the shag at the base of his skull.
When Max storms into his apartment not too much later, she looks just about as wary as he's ever seen her and carefully keeps her distance, holding herself in a fighting stance he recognizes. "Funny, I had a real interesting conversation with Joshua tonight. He says you're not Alec. That you've just been pretending to be him for a while. So I just wanna know two things. What's your designation and what'd you do with Alec?"
"I don't have a designation, and I didn't do anything to Alec," Dean replies. He knows she's not going to believe him, but he's not even entirely sure what she means by designation and this whole body swap thing is totally not on him.
"Now why don't I believe you?" Max asks with false sweetness. "Why don't you just show me your barcode, then?"
Dean's not exactly comfortable with exposing such a vulnerable point to her right now when she's so clearly distrustful, but if it'll tell her this is Alec's meatsuit, it's probably one of the fastest routes to getting her to believe him. So he turns around. Max walks over and roughly pulls down on his collar.
Her hand freezes there, before brushing the tips of her fingers lightly across the flesh, giving him goosebumps. "I don't – Alec?"
"No, I'm Dean. This is Alec's body though."
Max backs away, and Dean turns around to see that she's wearing an expression of only partially suppressed horror. "I don't understand. You said PsyOps made sure Ben's psychosis wasn't genetic. They were bastards, but thorough. You can't mean -"
"Woah, I don't know what you're talking about, but this ain't psychology, sister, it's magic. I woke up in this kid's skin a couple weeks ago where it's suddenly 2020 and the wrong universe. He's with my brother, wearing me around back in 2007 in my world. Now I figure you don't believe in the supernatural, and considering I can't find any traces of it in this reality, I can't say I blame you, but that's what happened."
"You realize that sounds far crazier than multiple personalities, right?" Max suggests, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
Dean grimaces. "I can't prove I'm not crazy. I managed to get my brother on the phone once, but I don't even know how that worked since it seems like now it was a fluke. I can't find a damn bit of proof for anything weird in this world that isn't completely made up or straight from Manticore."
Max just looks at him. "So if I believed you, which I completely don't, what are you going to do to get my friend back where he belongs?"
"Nothing," Dean sighs. "I can't do anything from my end, because I can't find any resources on anything – and even back in my world this whole body swapping thing is pretty freakin' high on the weird meter. I just have to hope my brother and Bobby can figure this one out. Hopefully one day I'll wake up back home and so will Alec."
"So I was right, you are in some kinda trouble." Dean makes a face of pure annoyance, and Max's expression turns calculating and her voice takes on a persuasive lilt as she asks, "You're so sure this is some magic thing, you wouldn't mind going with me to see a doctor, then, right?"
"Whatever, if it'll get you off my back."
…
Alec most definitely wants to get back to his own body and his own life. Which is why he volunteers to help with the research project Sam and Bobby embark on in the dusty library of Bobby's house. Well, it might be more accurate to say the dusty library that is Bobby's house, since there are books in just about every room of the place.
The problem is, research is just, well, boring. Manticore may have given him a first class mind, but he doesn't even really know what he's looking for here in more than the vaguest sense. They know that he switched bodies with Dean somehow. After asking Alec a bunch of questions about his world, accompanied by Sam working on a laptop to track down parts of his story with an efficiency that would have Logan green with envy, they're pretty sure it's not just a timeline discrepancy between worlds, either. Alec seems to be from an entirely different universe, because Sam can find no traces of Manticore or several major world events Alec remembers from Manticore's history lessons covering the early 2000s.
In a way it's reassuring that Sam and Bobby just buckle down and start researching, but after the first couple texts, Alec realizes he's not really helping. All of it is utterly crazy-sounding stuff about monsters and witches and spell craft and he not only has trouble believing any of it is real, he doesn't know enough of the terminology some of the references use to be sure he isn't skimming over something important. Which doesn't even address that several of the texts are in languages he doesn't know. Manticore hadn't given him more than the basics in Latin as a root language, and they certainly hadn't bothered with any of the even deader languages Bobby has books in.
Which is another distraction in and of itself for Alec, as it can't help but wonder just how much he could fence Bobby's library for – maybe Alec isn't exactly a literary expert, but he does know enough about ascertaining the age and condition of books to know most of this stuff has got to be worth a little dough even if it's not preciously rare. Not that he would, when these guys are his best and probably only hope to get home, but focusing on something else is better than feeling useless or panicking.
Still, there's only so much amusement to be had there, so mostly he finds himself just sitting in front of a book he's not really reading, getting occasionally glared at by an exasperated Sam for his fidgeting.
His curiosity is sparked when that ultimately leads to Sam groaning out, "You're every bit as bad as Dean." Because yeah, he's been wondering about that; this guy has his face, though they can't be related with the whole alternate universes thing, but it still has him questioning what else they might have in common. Especially the way Sam has reacted to things he's said a few times, as if he was checking to make sure Dean hadn't randomly switched back into his proper place while Sam was looking away.
Unfortunately, if Alec spends all his time peppering Sam with questions, the research they're doing will never get done, so Alec tries to restrain himself to mealtimes and breaks. Other than that, he mostly tries to stay out of their way, but even he can only watch so much TV before it gets old. And being here with nobody but Sam and Bobby who are so focused on Dean, it's hard not to think about the situation obsessively. He's used to getting out of his own scrapes, or, well, at least helping Max help him get out of his own scrapes. Being helpless is frustrating, and it's beyond weird there's this guy that has his face and his attention span, that likes hard liquor and plays pool and runs scams that lives in a completely different world. At least, he hopes it's pretty damn different because as far as he knows his own world isn't overrun with things from nightmares. Of course, according to Sam, most people in this world don't know their world is like that either, so who knows?
Once he gets that thought in his head, he can't stop thinking about his own world and missing it. So he waits until Sam and Bobby are both thoroughly engrossed in their respective books and swipes Sam's phone from where it's gotten shoved underneath the cover of one of their discards. Pocketing the item, he waits a minute and then makes a nonchalant comment about getting something to eat that both men barely acknowledge with a grunt and a waved hand respectively.
Satisfied with their disinterest, he goes into the kitchen and around the corner before he pulls the phone back out. He's pleased with the scheme of calling Dean, for two reasons. It should give him the opportunity to talk to his weird alternate universe clone and ask some questions of somebody who he isn't distracting from something more important. It's also a good opportunity to make sure the guy isn't screwing up Alec's life too badly while he's out. He dials the number for his own phone, but instead of ringing through, he only gets some weird staticky noise. He's still staring at the phone in confusion after trying a second time when Sam comes into the kitchen and stops short, asking him what he's doing.
Alec explains, since he's not really embarrassed about getting caught hijacking Sam's phone – he just hadn't been sure the guy would let him use it if he asked. Really, he can't complain, because aside from looking at him a little funny the first couple days he was here, Sam and Bobby have been fairly welcoming for two people who clearly aren't used to letting outsiders into their own strange world. Still, a lot of the time they treat him as inconvenient baggage that just happens to be filling the skin of the guy they want back, and it leaves Alec kind of unsure exactly where he stands with them.
Sam looks incredibly worried once he's gotten the story out of Alec and all but snatches the phone out of his hands to make his own attempted call to Dean. When it gives him the same weird buzz, Sam's entire face falls, and it looks for a second that he's even going to throw the phone into the wall.
"Sam," Alec starts, though he has no idea how to go on.
Thankfully, the second of distraction is enough and the angry way his face has contracted smooths out and he sighs. "I'd better tell Bobby about this."
The sad thing is the phones suddenly being unable to connect across universes when they did previously is just another in an increasingly large pile of unanswered questions. For all the books that Sam and Bobby (and occasionally even a very bored Alec) have flipped through, they have no idea what's happened here or how to reverse it. There are a few scattered reports of travel between universes, but most of them are old almost beyond imagining and involve fanciful tales of angels, which the hunters are both fairly sure don't actually exist, so who knows how accurate they are otherwise. There are a great deal more accounts of body swapping, as that's a fairly simple matter with witchcraft, but again, there's nothing to explain the universe swapping, the time distortion, or how and why it latched onto Dean and Alec in particular.
They spend a couple more days at Bobby's house until one afternoon when Sam shuts his laptop with a distinctive thunk and announces he and Alec are going to go and take care of a hunt over in Browns Valley, Minnesota. This is quite surprising news to Alec, but a quick glance at Bobby makes him think the older man was almost expecting this to happen. On the one hand, it'd be great to get out of this house. Alec is used to having been cooped up and unable to go anywhere for long periods – hello, Manticore – but that's kind of the problem. He already spent so much of his life doing that on someone else's orders that sitting around here doing nothing has left him antsy. On the other hand, well, he's not a hunter and he's not even revved up anymore. The last thing he needs to do is get himself in trouble with these guys for messing up and getting them, or Dean's body, hurt. So despite how much he would like to get out of here, he feels obligated to speak up.
"Uh, you know I'm not your brother or even a hunter, right?" Alec suggests, with just a hint of unavoidable sarcasm seeping into his tone. Sam and Bobby have been nice to him, but there's still that moment every time they look at him of disappointment he's not the guy they're looking for. He knows they're not doing it on purpose and it really has very little to do with him, but it still sucks.
"I know. I'm almost positive it's just a simple black dog, though. And I just can't stand to sit around getting nowhere anymore, can you? My brain needs a break to try and figure out some new angle to come at this from, and so far as I can tell both you and Dean are safe enough for the moment. Besides, didn't you say you were trained as a soldier?"
Sam definitely has a point, but still. "Yeah, but not to hunt supernatural things. I gotta think that's a little different. Plus, I'm in your brother's body, and he's way slower and weaker than I'm used to."
"It can't be that different," Sam contends. "C'mon. I'll do most of the work, I just need you to make sure nothing gets me from behind, alright?"
Alec still feels pretty dubious about the whole venture, but Sam has clearly already made up his mind. And his puppy dog eyes are worse than Joshua's. "Alright, I guess."
Thanks to the fact they never really unpacked the duffle bags they brought with them to Bobby's, they're back on the road in under an hour with Sam behind the wheel. Apparently Dean would not be happy if he got back and found out Sam let anyone else drive the car.
"He's that attached to it?"
From the passenger seat, Alec sees Sam roll his eyes, though he doesn't turn his attention from the road. "He calls it his baby."
Alec starts in slight surprise, and chuckles softly. He feels a weird spike of what has got to be homesickness, wondering if Dean and Max are bonding over their obsessive love of their respective vehicles. The thought turns sour and resentful after only a moment though, because the last thing he needs to know is that there's yet another person out there with his face Max can actually stand because they aren't him.
It's just a two and a half hour drive between Bobby's place and the town where Sam's hunt is. Their first stop once they hit the correct town is checking into a run down motel similar to the one he'd first woken up in as Dean. Thankfully there aren't any ducks this time, but he's not sure the orange neon zebra striped bedspreads and the jungle leaf print wallpaper are actually an improvement.
Sam is careful to give him a thorough run down of everything he needs to know about Black Dogs before they ever leave the motel. Alec had assured Sam on the drive up that he was a great shot, though Sam had insisted they pull off to a deserted field and test out that claim after all the complaints Alec had made about the limits of Dean's body. They're both a little relieved when Alec is just as good as he said he was. As all they have to do is lure the creatures out and shoot them with iron rounds, Sam continues to insist that the hunt should go easily enough.
In the end, he's right, it's pretty simple. Alec is aware of the limitations of the body he's in, and Sam does take the lead for the most part, just as he promised. Which is not to say that the appearance of spectral dogs with glowing eyes that could appear and disappear at will doesn't freak Alec out, because they really, really do. As Sam had said, though, they were more interested in scaring their prey first before tearing it apart and he was there to follow Sam's lead. So aside from it being a little nerve-wracking to stand stock still instead of running when they growled at him for the few seconds before Sam took them down, it couldn't have gone smoother. Most of the hunt is actually a little boring, trudging along a lonely back road after dark trying to lure the beasts out. Even with as mind-blowing as the genuine monsters are, the most harrowing part of the experience is the two creepy dudes in a truck that try and pick him up as he's playing bait.
The younger Winchester was also right about it being good for both of them to get out of Bobby's house for a few days. Compared to the dilapidated state of Seattle in his world, the cheesy rundown motels the hunters stay at are still fairly luxurious. Tacky décor aside, nothing's actively rotting and they have running hot water. Sam finds Alec's explanation of all this hilarious after he asks Alec why he isn't complaining about the accommodations.
Sam even talks about them maybe taking on another simple hunt instead of heading back to Bobby's right away, although his frustration every few hours when he attempts to call Alec's universe is clearly weighing on him. They take an extra couple of days to do a little sparring, to try and help Alec adjust to the limited abilities of the body he's in. Alec has the training, it's just a matter of getting used to how slowly he moves compared to what he's used to and how vulnerable he is to injury. There's a little bit of adjustment for Sam, too, because he's used to Dean fighting in a fairly different style than the one Alec learned. They both teach each other a few new things, and Sam finally stops giving him that disappointed look that he's not Dean quite so often.
In the evenings, Sam looks for another case, but mostly he ends up finding things he relays back to Bobby to pass on to other hunters. Alec is half tempted to be offended because after the Black Dog he feels pretty confident about this supernatural crap, but Sam warns him not to get cocky. Finally, Sam finds what he thinks will be a simple enough ghost hunt and they set back off on the road again.
Alec wishes he'd listened when Sam goes into a roadside diner to get them lunch and disappears, leaving behind a room full of messy corpses. When his panic finally calms down enough to let him think, his first irrational thought is that Dean's just going to have to deal with someone else driving his car, because yes, he is in way, way over his head here. Hopefully Bobby isn't.