Chapter 4- Family Need Not Be Blood
Sam sat in the wooden chair at the table researching on his laptop. Dean had fallen asleep next to him with a book in his lap in the upholstered chair. Sam couldn't stop thinking about what Balthazar had said to him. He pondered the idea of a permanent solution to his the problem with being re-ensouled. He worried a lot of the time since he woke up with a shiny new wall in his mind to keep him from feeling the full effects of his shredded and battered soul. He was so focused on his introspection; he didn't notice the green eyes looking at him from under the comforter.
Kat had moved silently to observe the younger Winchester. She could feel Sam's independent spirit and it drew her to observe him. She saw his expression was pensive. She studied him. The shifts in his concentration between his laptop and some unknown puzzle he continued to try and piece together. She saw the fear in many of the comments he had made to his brother over the course of the day. She had watchers observing the brothers even before she actually met them. From the reports she got from those watchers, the brothers worked in concert with each other. They were a pair of highly-trained warriors. They also had connections with the Host of angels that would lead her to Raphael. She sighed.
Sam heard her sigh and looked up from the computer to make eye contact with her. She saw him tense. She saw a tiny shift of his body in the direction of the arm chair. She stretched her long body on the bed and kicked the comforter off in the process. For some reason, this movement made him even more wary. "Don't wake him," she whispered. "He is very tired."
Sam snorted and was about to reply when Kat sat up straight in the bed and her head snapped toward the door. She bolted out of the bed and leaped the short distance from bed to door. When she yanked the door open, she knelt down just as a small child ran into her arms sobbing uncontrollably. Sam lept to his feet and the commotion woke the sleeping Dean who rose from the chair with a glock pulled and pointed at the door. When Dean saw the child he hid the gun behind him and under his shirt.
Kat was cooing to the child, trying to make sense of his frantic nonsense until the words, "He has a gun" escaped the child's mouth. She seemed to tense and she turned to glare at Sam and Dean with fire in her eyes. "Whatever happens," she commanded the child, "Stay here." He nodded and ran to jump on the bed, pulling covers up over him. She looked only long enough to make sure he was safely there and she ran out of the apartment.
The Winchesters started to follow, hesitated long enough for Dean to signal for Sam to remain with the child, and Dean went to back Kat up with whatever it was that spooked her. She was already at an apartment near the back alley of the small complex. She was peeping in through the barred windows and her posture was rigid and tense. She remained still like that until just before Dean caught up to her. She must have seen something that concerned her because she sprang to the door and began trying to force it open. She frantically thrust her body against the door over and over again, pausing to scratch at the door with her hands and demand the door be opened. Dean grabbed her arm with one hand and stood at the corner of the threshold with his gun at the ready.
Sense seemed to come back into Kat's expression and she stood on the opposite side and waited. He counted wordlessly to her and, on three, he kicked in the door, covering the occupants with his weapon. Kat glanced in to see a man holding an unconscious woman lying on the floor by the hair. He had a gun in his hand and he held her close to his body. Kat was enraged and entered slowly. She showed the man her hands to show she had no similar weapons, but Dean stood behind her, his body shielded by the door frame with a gun pointed at the man. Kat was careful not to step between that gun and the man on the floor.
"Let her go." She whispered to him. "Let her go, and you may yet live."
The man screwed up his face in defiance and anger. "Are you telling me what to do, Bitch?" he screamed.
Kat stopped moving forward long enough for Dean to see small sparks coming from Kat's arms. He adjusted his stance and waited. He didn't know what she was doing, but he didn't like it. When no fireworks were lit into the room, Dean figured Kat may have changed her mind about letting them loose. Kat instead knelt down on the floor six feet away from the hostage situation. "Let her go, please." She whispered again.
The man seemed to consider her request, or he was calculating that someone may have already called five-oh. His eyes shifted as he was deciding how he would handle this situation. Kat seemed to know he had few options here, and the police standoff that was likely to ensue would be bad for the child, his mother, the man… and bad for her and the two Hunters she had as houseguests. "We will let you go now." She continued, "I'm just worried about Clara. I don't want to detain you." She was nearly pleading with him. The man's gaze darted to Dean in the doorway. Kat seemed to read his concern, "He won't bother you unless you try to hurt me or him. He'll let you go, too. " Kat heard the muttering under his breath as Dean responded to that.
Slowly, the man rose from his position on the floor. He aimed his weapon at Kat and shifted it to Dean as he began to move. Kat remained completely still on the floor but her gaze never left the man. He began to maneuver around the furniture and to the right side of Kat toward the door. Kat remained frozen there and watched him as he came closer to her. When he was a few feet away, Kat suddenly, in a fluid quick action, leaped sideways at the man and grabbed him by the arm. Flashes of light escaped her bracelets as she smashed the man into the wall. She repeated slamming him into the wall until he fell limp on the floor. Dean watched until she stopped slamming him. He could hear growling vibrations all through the air and her eyes looked completely mad. He turned the aim of his gun to her. He didn't know if she had lost control enough to attack him, but didn't want to take any chances.
When he heard sirens in the distance, he called to her, "Kat!" She didn't seem to hear him, but lay prone near the man she had just incapacitated. She remained guarded and tense. "Kat!" Dean tried again. This time, some reason returned to her eyes and she looked up to see Dean staring at her with a horrified expression on his face. She turned to look over her shoulder at Clara. She raced to Clara and felt her carotid artery for a pulse. Her face was turning purple in the corner near her temple. Kat turned to face Dean.
"Stash your weapons in the Impala, Dean. You and Sam keep Ray in my apartment until an officer or I come to get him." Dean looked like he was going to argue, but the sirens were getting closer. He turned to go. She remained with Clare and stroked her hair. That was how Officer Ballard found her.
Two police cars screamed into the parking lot. The officers headed cautiously to the open door of the apartment where Clare and Kat lay on the floor. Kat recognized Officer Ballard's cologne even before he arrived in the room. There were two officers with him she had not yet met. But, she knew Ballard. He had a serious problem with Kat and was always willing to think the worst of her. She also knew that he was a good cop; he wasn't corruptible. She admired him for his dedication to "protect and serve". Kat looked up at him with her large green eyes.
"Get an ambulance," he ordered one of his men. The officer left to go. The other officer went to the fallen man by the door. He began patting him down and securing the weapon. Ballard went to where Clare and Kat were laying.
"What happened?" he asked her. She told him, more or less, exactly what happened from Ray coming to her apartment to Ballard's arrival, leaving out significant details like Dean's involvement. She knew the man on the floor was Clare's ex-husband and Clare had a restraining order against him. She told these facts to Ballard. Ballard took notes and made observations with darting eyes around the scene. She knew he was suspicious as he asked questions of her, but they seemed to have a temporary truce that focused on protecting Clare.
This is why she admired Ballard. He wasn't friendly. He wasn't comforting. He was, however, competent and thorough. He thrust his chin out at her. He knew there were holes in her story. He was unwilling to believe she was simply in shock or frightened. He believed she was deliberately withholding information. He paused to look at her and backed away as the paramedics approached.
Kat rose from the floor and swayed slightly. She had not fully recovered from the power drain of earlier in the evening. She was not able to call upon more power to deal with one lone lunatic ex-husband! She rubbed her face with her hand and felt another hand grip her loose hand to steady her. Ballard looked at her face, not with concern, but with a scrutiny that told her he was trying to determine if the instability was genuine. She flashed him a tight grin and withdrew her hand from his. "Thanks." She said simply.
"Where is the boy?" he asked. She hesitated then.
She had made friends with the eight year old boy the day she arrived at the apartment complex. He was defending a dog from an abusive owner and was standing defiantly between the small dog and a large man insistent that the boy return his property. Kat watched the child jut out his chin, much as Ballard had, to display his stubborn will. Yup. He won her heart during that one moment. She interfered in the standoff resulting in the owner walking away without his dog but was fifty bucks richer. After that day, she often found Ray at her door. Occasionally, he had a question that he was unable to find a satisfactory answer from other adults. When he realized she would seriously consider his questions or observations, he would bring them to her more frequently, no matter what the subject matter. She felt protective toward the child, and as an extension, toward his mother.
She wondered if she should hedge her answer. She shifted from foot to foot and averted her gaze from his face. He recognized her reluctance. "We need to find a family member to care for him until his mother recovers." He said in a matter-of-fact tone. "He needs to go with us."
"I'll bring him here." She said sadly. She began walking across the driveway. The residents had emerged in pre-dawn light to see the excitement in their neighborhood. Their eyes followed her briefly and she could hear the whispered comments. She turned the doorknob to her apartment to find herself bowled over by a small form. She knelt down to hold the boy as he shook under her hands. She felt like she was going to cry. She sniffed and looked up to see the Winchesters watching her. She schooled her expression with a more friendly and confident smile. She pulled gently away from Ray to look into his face.
"Your mom is going to be fine." She began. "Your dad won't be bothering either of you again." She hesitated and took a breath as she noticed the storm clouds form in the child's face. "I have a friend who is going to take you and show you the police station for a little while. He's going to introduce you to a social worker..." The child's face brightened.
"Like Mrs. Gamely?" He asked with a smile.
Kat smiled and nodded. "Just like Mrs. Gamely." Mrs. Gamely was the social worker at Ray's school. He had come to Kat to confirm some piece of information Mrs. Gamely had given Ray and from that point on, he felt comfortable asking the social worker some of the questions he had asked Kat. She was glad Mrs. Gamely had been such a good example of her profession so this experience might not be so traumatic.
"Will she have games like Mrs. Gamely has?" he asked.
Kat swallowed hard and tried to keep the tears from forming in her eyes. "Maybe." She replied.
Ray seemed to consider what Kat had said. He decided that he could always trust Kat. She never lied to him and she was his friend. He could count on these facts to know that she was interested in his benefit. Kat reached out to Ray and pulled a chain from beneath his t-shirt collar. At the end of the chain, there was a cartouche. She held it briefly in her hand and gazed up into the boys eyes. He looked down at the thin piece of metal and nodded at her. She looked at him sternly for a moment, "For anything." She said.
"I know." Ray responded. He threw his arms around her neck in a tight hug. Kat closed her eyes and firmly and warmly embraced the child. When they pulled away, Kat rose and held Ray's hand to lead him to Ballard.
When she returned to the apartment, she walked in as a zombie might. She walked deliberately to the cabinets and she pulled down a bottle of an amber liquid. She poured it into a glass and downed it quickly. She closed her eyes before turning to face the men standing looking at her. She took a deep breath before she addressed them. "Can the questioning wait until I can catch my breath?" she asked.