Payment in Kind

Disclaimer - see chapter one

And Before I forget - AGAIN- Thank you to my SN beta Sammygirl1963 for stepping up - and if someone doesn't like this...she made me do it!!! (Just kidding, she is the best, as so many of us know.)

Chapter Four

Dean Winchester was no fool. He tried not to look a gift horse in the mouth. And no one could say Dean didn't like his food. His eyes wanted to pop out of their sockets when he saw the repast that had been placed in front of them. Seated next to his brother, with one of the richest men in the world carefully placing himself between the son Dean kept glaring at and the angry young man trying to visually rip apart said son, Dean couldn't help but appreciate the smells rising from the plate in front of him.

"Hey, this smells better than the Mushroom Swiss Melt at Burger King," he whispered in an aside to Sam.

Sam rolled his eyes. The salad in front of him was filled with crisp lettuce and jumbo shrimp, the Romano cheese and croutons were perfect, and there was even a basket of hot (they were still hot!) slices of French bread in front of him. But leave it to his older brother to compare the meal in front of them to one at the fast food chain.

Kate nudged her husband, getting Scott to sit as she gave her father-in-law a shaky smile. She had been sure of two things – one, that in the end, Jeff would agree with her determination that, based on her research, the Winchester Brothers were the perfect people to help them with the problem. She was also sure that he would most definitely not approve with her methods of getting that help.

"Well, our meals are getting cold, or warm, in the case of the salads, so why don't we eat while I explain everything." Kate gave her best "I swear, I know what I am doing" look to the room and hoped it had an effect.

For a few minutes, silverware hitting china filled the room as the men all waited for Kate to start talking. Kate waited for Scott and Dean to have food in their mouths so she was less likely to be interrupted.

"Dean, Sam, how much do you know about the Tracy family?" Kate's question took the boys by surprise, but as he lightly buttered a piece of bread, Sam answered.

"Jeff Tracy, former astronaut, was still with the space program when he met and married his wife, an art and music teacher. They married, had two sons in rapid succession, and he left the space program to found Tracy Industries. Two more sons were added to the mix and the business changed to Tracy Enterprises. By the time the fifth son came along, more than five years after the fourth son, Mr. Tracy was a millionaire several times over. When the youngest son was three, the family went on a ski vacation and there was an avalanche. Mrs. Tracy, the two oldest sons, Scott and John, as well as the baby, Alan, were caught in the disaster. Mrs. Tracy died, the three boys were rescued." Sam took a bite of his salad and carefully chewed – god, this stuff was good – as he gave the Tracys a chance to breath and his brother a chance to absorb the information he had gathered while playing on the computer in Kate's office. Swallowing, Sam continued.

"Each of the sons has an impressive list of accomplishments, but the key ones are as follows: Scott Tracy graduated with honors from Yale while serving in the Air Force Reserves. He had barely gone on active duty when the Terrorist Wars broke out and in a heroic but still fairly classified action he saved both civilian and military lives and was awarded the Medal of Honor. Scott left the military, went to work for his father, married former FBI agent Katherine Eppes and fathered two sons of his own, Jason, age five and Donald Jefferson, or DJ, age two. John Tracy graduated from Harvard with a dual degree in Astronomy and Computers, worked for NASA before also going to work for Tracy Enterprises, married Dr. Emily Haas and has a daughter, Elizabeth, age four. Virgil…"

Dean almost choked on the piece of steak he was inhaling. "Virgil? You named your poor kid Virgil? What the hell were you thinking?"

Jeff almost smiled. "Virgil use to wonder the same thing. But I named my sons for the Mercury Seven astronauts: Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Virgil Grissom, Gordon Cooper and Alan Sheppard. There was also Walter Schirra, but I think Lucy would have had my guts for garters if I had suggested we try for a full roster."

Dean chuckled. He liked this guy. Glaring at the man's oldest son, Dean didn't even realize he was eating the asparagus until he saw Sam's amused look. Returning his attention to the steak, he listened as Sam continued.

"Virgil Tracy, although gifted in both painting and music, primarily the piano, chose to major at Princeton in Mechanical Engineering. He went directly from college to work for Tracy Enterprises. Four years ago, he married Sarah Woodbury. A former acquaintance of the Tracys from when they lived in Kansas, she was working as a paramedic firefighter in Boston when she recued a teenage boy from a hotel fire. That boy turned out to be Alan Tracy, which reunited Sarah with the family." Sam noted the tight grip each of the Tracys had on each themselves and tried to put themselves in their place. How scary must it have been to have almost lost another family member? "Virgil and Sarah now have a son, Michael, age two. Sarah works as a Physician's Assistant at the Tracy Charitable Clinic in New Zealand which is run by Dr. Emily Tracy."

"OK, that was son number two's wife, right?" Dean asked, even as Sam glared at him for talking with his mouth full.

Kate swallowed a bite of bread before answering. "Yes, glad to see you are paying attention to your brother's research. Just as I am glad to see Sam made use of the resources we gave him."

Sam quickly continued before his brother could erupt on the woman. "Gordon Tracy chose not to go to college but went straight into the WASPs, a special division of the Navy under the United Nations. He wasn't in for long when an accident in a hydrofoil killed the other members of his team and left Gordon fighting for his life. Gordon recovered and, although the doctors said he would never walk again, less than two years later he won a gold medal at the Olympics. Gordon is not married, has no children but I did get to meet his girlfriend, Julie Maxwell." Looking at his brother, he shrugged. "She works here. She has a bit of a French accent, it's kinda, well, hot."

Kate chuckled, sipping her ice tea. "Julie lived in France from when she was five to almost sixteen. When she gets upset, she has a tendency to slip into French. I recognize some of the words and trust me, they were not ones the nuns at the convent school taught her."

Dean frowned at that piece of information. Convent school? They still had those? Dean gave a silent shudder at the news.

Sam smiled at the look on his brother's face. Anything religious not used in fighting evil was suspect to his brother. And Julie was the kind of girl you married, not the one-night stands Dean was used to.

"Less is known about Alan. The youngest Tracy son set a track record while in high school for the one mile run and one in college for the long jump. He is attending Harvard, with dual majors in Engineering and English Literature. Alan publishes sci-fi short stories under the name A.S. Tracy. He is expected to graduate this spring. And while I don't know her name, I suspect he is still dating the girl in the picture in the office?"

Jeff smiled. "Tin-Tin. Alan and she have known each other since they were ten. Her parents work for me back on Tracy Island. They have been dating since they were fifteen. And I am not supposed to know this, but they are engaged."

"What?" Scott sputtered. "Dad, he is just a kid, you can't…OUCH!"

As her husband rubbed his abused leg, Kate frowned at him before addressing her father-in-law. "Dad, they are going to announce it at Christmas. Alan gave Tin-Tin Grandma Tracy's ring before she left for her semester abroad." Looking over at the Winchesters, she shrugged. "Tracys have a need to mark their territory." Ignoring the slight glare from the Tracy men, she continued. "Alan would have married Tin straight out of high school if he hadn't thought his father would have a stroke. Tin-Tin is a student at MIT but was offered a chance at the semester abroad in Japan, at the Emperors College with their robotics program."

Scott played with his glass as he looked down at the table. "Alan is the reason we need you."

The Winchesters looked intrigued. Sam took a sip of the ice tea as he looked at the Tracy family. "OK, I am going under the assumption that no demonic deals have ever been made in your family…"

Dean interrupted his brother. "Sam, you can't be sure of that. I mean, did you listen to what you rattled off? Nobody gets to be that lucky…"

"Lucky? Young man, what were you hearing?" Jeff looked outraged. "My wife was killed in a senseless accident, caused by someone using equipment they shouldn't have in a populated area. She died because there wasn't the rescue equipment available and we were lucky one or more of my boys were not killed. Scott was hurt in that military incident. John's wife had complication when his daughter was born and right now is pregnant again. We are all worried about Emily. Gordon could have died in the hydrofoil accident. If not for Sarah's courage, Alan could have been killed in that fire and later…well, he became ill a few months later, he almost died. And now, something is happening again with Alan…"

"Like what, Mr. Tracy?" Sam asked, glaring his brother into silence. Dean began to eat again – he wasn't about to let a meal like this go to waste.

Kate picked up the conversation again. "There have been a series of unexplained accidents. Like when there was a fire in his condo in Boston, with a kitchen towel catching fire on the stove."

Dean frowned. "So the kid left a towel on the stove. Big deal."

Playing with her glass, Kate shook her head. "The towel Alan had used that evening was in the laundry. He hadn't pulled another one out. And he was supposed to have the stove looked at the next day, so he had unplugged the stove. It's an electric stove. So it was a fire with a towel that had to be taken out of the pantry and with an appliance that had no power to it. Explain that."

"OK, so that is kinda weird. What else?" Sam asked.

Kate handed Sam a file. "Here are the incidents that have occurred in the last couple of months since Alan returned to Harvard in August. I arranged to have the condo next to Alan's be available for the next month. The law student is spending a month with the California Attorney General's office for that big consumer fraud case."

Jeff looked askance at his daughter-in-law. "Isn't your brother Dan the lead prosecutor on that case?"

Grinning at him, Kate shrugged. "Is he? I really didn't recall that."

Scott and Dean shook their heads in disbelief, while Sam shook his in admiration. Kate was as fiercely protective of her family as her husband. She was just more subtle.

Dean looked over at the Tracys. "OK, you kidnap my brother and now you want us to find out what supernatural power may or may not be after Alan?"

Kate smiled. "No, we appropriated Sam, treated him well and waited for you to join us. We simply wanted to stress how we are feeling. Alan…Alan is the baby of this family. He is very precious to us. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that we would not do to protect him. Surely you can understand that Dean? What have you been willing to do to protect your brother over the years?"

Sam and Dean exchanged meaningful looks as Kate continued. "But don't think that Tracys do not pay for services rendered. We wanted the Winchester Brothers because you are the best. We are desperate. If it is something supernatural after Alan, we are out of our element. But this is where you come in. And I know there is no amount of cash value we can place on your services. However, I think you would be willing to accept payment in kind."

"Payment in kind? What's that supposed to mean?" Dean asked.

Sam spoke before any of the Tracys could. "Payment in kind, Dean, refers to payment for goods or services with a medium other than money. Like if you received produce or livestock for work instead of cash from a farmer."

Kate nodded, smiling. "Indeed." Handing Sam two folders, she gave a slight nod. "How would you like that to disappear?"

Sam looked at the folders before handing them to his brother. Dean frowned at the FBI files on him and his brother. Looking over at Kate, he shrugged. "You can't make this stuff disappear. No one has that much money."

"Money," Kate mused, "is not the real source of power. Knowing how something works and how to get around it – that is power. This," she held up a small computer memory stick, "has a virus. If planted at the central processor for the FBI in Quantico, it will affect every law enforcement data base in the country. All references to brushes with the law for either one of you will vanish. You will never have even gotten a parking ticket."

"So we save Alan, we get a fresh start. Is that what you are proposing?" Sam asked, surprised but not shocked.

Kate shook her head. "No, take the case, in earnest; you get your names cleared. Solve the case, you get this." She handed him another file. Sam's eyes went wide as he looked at the file. Dean got sick of waiting and finally said, "What is it, Sammy?"

"Our parents' old house back in Kansas. The last family to live there moved out. It is now owned by a trust and being rented out. Dean – the trust is in our names."

Kate smiled. "The house is in good shape and a university professor is currently renting it. All you will need is for your signatures to be put side by side with mine and Alan's. Yes, Alan's. In order to collect, you need to keep Alan alive. You will notice that the trust can not be collected on for thirty days. I am sure you don't want to be doing this forever. Wouldn't it be nice to know you will have a financial resource to fall back on?"

Dean thought of all the near misses, all the things he had always wanted for his brother. Well, if they survived the Armageddon that Castiel kept warning him about, they could use the money sometimes. It would be nice to have some legitimate source of income.

Looking at each other, the brothers nodded. Jeff smiled, a strain seemingly released from him. "Thank you. While I don't approve of their methods and I will be having a discussion with them about it," Kate and Scott seemed to shrink under the parental disapproval, "I can understand it. My sons, well, they are my life. I call my family my true treasures. All my wealth, my success, would be nothing without my family. And Alan…he's my baby. I don't care how old he is, or even when he is married with babies of his own, I will still feel that way. I have seen too much in this world not to believe in what you hunt. And for some reason, something from the darkness is after my son. I have to agree – you boys may be my son's only chance. Thank you for giving us some hope. Now," he rose, motioning to the meals they had not yet finished. "Enjoy your lunches, and there is some apple pie at the end of the table. When you are done, Ann-Marie should be back. I will have her get someone to take you to your car. Kate had it moved to our garage and you need a card key to get in there. In the mean time, you two-" he motioned to Kate and Scott, "My office – NOW. We are in need of a discussion on how NOT to hire a contractor. Or about having my security team ignore someone breaking into the building."

As Jeff herded his son and daughter-in-law out, the Winchesters grinned and returned to their meals. Good food wasn't always readily available for them. Besides, there was pie.

A/N - I did this chapter to let the non Thunderbirds readers- and those who never read my Tracy Family Series - get caught up. So it is Alan who is at risk. What is after him? Will the Winchesters be able to save him? Will they be alive to collect their reward? Will Dean get more pie? Well, we shall see...Reviews. por favor...CC