Episode 5

"Animals"

Chapter 1

After being back in "full swing" for a little over four months now, the Winchesters had actually made a dent in the seemingly never ending cascade of cases. They were finally able to take on something "fresh" again. Well not as fresh as they'd have liked. But, a man named Eugene Lambert had disapeared roughly two months ago in Elberon, Iowa and there had been recent deaths in the area, dating back to three months ago, that looked like werewolf attacks.

The missing man in question was married and had four children and knowing the way a werewolf had a prefrence to turn someone close to them meant that, that family was in danger. So, the brothers landed on the doorstep of Katie Lambert, the distrought wife of the missing man.

They claimed to be extended family of her husband, distant cousins and all that, said they were there to help in her time of need and Katie being the sweet trusting naive girl she was just let them right into her home. Katie even set them up a space to sleep in the guest bedroom.

She was only twenty-nine years old and being suddenly forced to be a single mother of four young children had proven extremly dificult so she actually even thanked them for coming, she opened herself like a book to them and told them all her woes.

She introduced them to each of her precious babies talking about what made them each so special.

Her oldest Justin was twelve years old and she talked about how he was the greatest big brother in the entire world and quite the little ladies man with his dark chesnut hair, beautiful bright gem green eyes and long eylashes.

Haylee, her second child and her only girl at nine years old was a bossy, prissy, firey spirited girl that was going to be a future famous clothing designer or something big with the art skills she had. As the only girl she had her brothers wrapped around her finger and she was way to pretty for her mom's own good with straw blond hair and light Cornflower blue eyes.

Jason was probably the cutest five year old ever, with firey red hair, eyebrows and eyelashes with a personality to match and eyes that changed either gray-blue or gray-green depending on his mood.

And there was her littlest, just his name alone tugged on Dean's heart, little Samuel or Sammy as his mom so lovingly called him was three years and had a bald head from chemo thearapy but if he had hair it'd be just a bit lighter blond than his sister's and he had dark olive green eyes, Katie called him her little fighter and talked about how devesating the diagnoses of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia had been at first but her sweetie had gotten past all that and was finally in the maintanance part of his treatment. Meaning they had finally been able to live a bit farther from the children's hospital and in an area they could actually afford the rent.

"Sam." Katie chuckled and looked at the youngest Winchester. "So funny.", "When my husband suggested the name I thought nothing of it.", "He and I agreed we weren't gonna name our kids after any relatives, I didn't even get to name one of the kids after my granpa like I wanted and he goes and sneaks in a name from a cousin!" She smiled shaking her head. "Oh well, it's a nice name and it suits you both."

It hadn't dawned on Dean till just now , how they passed for family so easy was because of Sam's name and by looks alone they could have really been blood relation to those kids.

After dinner Dean asked how heavy she and the kids slept because he and his brother might be up "rumaging" around in the house and on the property.

Katie replied that they could build a railroad track over her kids and drive a train down it with the horn blairing and it wouldn't wake them, but she on the other hand didn't have the luxury of being able to sleep so heavy.

When she asked why they'd be outside so late Dean responded playfully by saying "We heard vicous wild critters were on the lose and living out here in the country means they might get uncomfortably close to home."

"Are you refering to the animal attacks?", "I've heard about those to.", "As long as we stay inside we should be fine." Katie said with a smirk.

"Honestly though.", "It's gotten to were I drive the kids to school because the bus gets here so early that it's still dark out.", "Last month Justin was bitten by something while waiting on the bus, he never even saw what it was, poor kid had to get rabies shots just in case.", "That really sucked.", "But everything's fine now."

"Bitten, really, where?" Sam asked sounding nervous. "His ankle." Katie answered. "Never seen a bite mark like it.", "And after hearing about all the people killed by some mystery animal, I thank my son's lucky stars that it wasn't more than a little bite." With that Katie excused herself for bed.

Chapter 2

"YOU KNOW WHAT WE HAVE TO DO SAM!" Dean growled frustrated.

"We are not killing a little kid Dean!", "We don't know for sure it was even our "thing" that bit him.", "Or for sure it's even really a werewolf." Sam said clenching his teeth in anger. "I can't even believe that you'd suggested a thing like that."

Dean grabbed the front of Sam's shirt, making a fist in the fabric and pushing Sam against the wall snarling. "I'm even less okay with this than you are, believe me.", "But you can't be so delusioned to think that's not what we're dealing here."

"That little boy has an uncontrolable beast inside of him and he WILL transform probably tonight and if we don't kill him AND the thing that bit him we could be looking at having to kill this whole family cause these thing's base instincts are to change those close to them and kill anyone who poses a threat, YOU KNOW THAT!"

"It has to be done, we don't have a choice." Dean said sounding regretful.

There was a noise from outside the room, of something falling over. Dean rushed out to see Katie, her eyes wide with fear and full of tears. "I'M CALLING THE POLICE!", "I WANT YOU OUTA MY HOUSE NOW!" She shouted in near hysterics as she backed away. Then she made to run for the phone.

Dean closed the gap between them and pulled her back, she fought hard and he had to knock her out.

When she woke up she was tied to a chair as well as her children.

Dean hadn't wanted to risk it when he swept the house and discovered that everyone slept with their window opened for the cool night breeze, any one of them might be bitten and not know it and all it took was just enough to draw blood, so a bitemark might be small or faint, pending on the place it was located.

Dean held the gun ready it was loaded with enough special silver bullets to take the whole family if needed, although he was pretty sure Katie was definatly not a werewolf as she had been unconcious for a good portion of the night.

Dean wasn't going to pull the trigger until a transformation was made and no one looked like they were sleeping anytime soon. Dean figured he should at least make an attempt at explaining what was happening (like it was going to make things easier on the poor terrified mother that would probably kill them the first second she got a chance).

As Dean told Katie about " ALL the things that go bump in the night" and what he believed her oldest child to be and about the only way to put an end to threat he posed, she struggled against her bindings frantically.

Like all people who found out about nightmare creatures being real from them, she thought they were CRAZY. And to make it worse the crazy people were threatening her family.

Justin couldn't handle staying awake. Soon the stress took hold and he started to doze off.

Dean raised his gun ready to squeeze the trigger after the transformation.

Katie went balistic, she had a moment of "freak adrenaline" and rocked forward to her feet.

She threw herslf into the wall shattering the chair and freeing herself from the bindings.

Both Sam and Dean were so suprised by this that when Katie charged Dean, punched him hard in the face and forced the gun out of his hand, neither he nor Sam had more than a second to think as she aimed the gun at Dean. She'd shoot them both dead to defend her children.

Sam tackled her.

Katie let out a scream of agony and rage. "DON'T DO THIS PLEEEAASSEE!" She shrieked as she struggled to get Sam off of her.

Justin lifted his head but his eyes were those of a monster.

Katie stiffened and froze as she saw it. Her breaths came in deep heaving sobs as she whispered through chattering teeth "Oh my god.", "NO!"

Dean picked up the gun and pointed it at the child, he wanted more than anything in the world not to have to do this and he was hesitating.

Katie struggled against Sam harder she struck him, bit and clawed him screaming "NO!", "NO PLEASE!" as Dean cocked the lever back on the gun Katie wailed in grief "WAIT!", "WAIT PLEASE DON'T!"

Dean didn't know why but he was listening to her.

"Please you don't have to kill him!" she said a little calmer now as she saw his hesitation "There's another way.", "If you kill the one that bit him..."

"We've been there done that." Dean interupted flatly as he prepared to squeeze the trigger.

"IT'S SUPPOSED TO ONLY WORK IF THE PERSON YOU'RE TRYING TO SAVE HASN'T MADE THEIR FIRST KILL OR BITTEN ANYONE!", "HE HASN'T!", "PLEEEAASE!", "PLEEEAASSEE!, "PLEEEEEAAAASSSEE!", "YOU HAVE TO TRY!", "DON'T KILL MY SON!", "DON'T HURT MY BABY!", "Please." She finshed shaking.

Dean lowered his gun shaking his head, saying coldly "All this does is postpone the inevitable, the longer I let him live, the bigger the chance he's gonna hurt or even kill someone."

"Please try." Katie said, she had lost that adrenaline rush and now she couldn't even get her voice much above a whisper as the sinking realization of what would happen if it didn't work took hold.

Dean tucked the gun back into his waistband. "Do you got a basement or someplace we can lock him till morning?" Dean asked.

"We have one of those tornado proof rooms under the staircase." Katie replied not meeting his gaze.

Sam still held her pinned to the floor but the fight had gone out of her, because as much as she hated it her mind was starting to wrap around what Dean had said and what she'd seen with her own eyes.

Dean drug Justin still tied to the chair to the room under the staircase that Katie had indicated.

The boy's eyes were a bright blue and he growled thrashing his head side to side chomping on his gag trying get a good angle to bite Dean.

Chapter 3

Katie laid there crying quietly. The second Sam was off of her she bolted up to untie her other children.

Dean raised his hand and shook his head when Sam looked as if he may try to pull her back.

Katie cradled her three frightened children to her and she was a shivering sobbing wreck herself.

Dean told Sam to find the werewolf that bit the boy and to hurry because there were only a couple of hours till sunrise. Dean stayed behind to watch Katie.

Eventually Katie mustered the strength to stand again.

Gathering her babies she teetered a little as she warily avoided Dean and guided her youngest three children to the kitchen table.

She grabbed bowls from the cabinet and cereal from on top of the refridgerator. Trying to get back some sense of normalcy she made her little ones breakfast.

She tried to behave as if Dean wasn't there, but failed miserably as she saw the empty chair her oldest child should be sitting in. She clenched her fist and spun around facing Dean.

Her eyes narrowed as she gave Dean an if looks could kill you'd be dead stare.

Clenching her jaw, the way she stood telegraphed her longing to take a swing.

"Go ahead." Dean said shrugging. "You'll end up tied to a chair again, only this time I'll nail the chair down so that you can't pull another stunt like last night."

"Stunt." Katie hissed furiously. "You pointed a gun at my child." Her tone was getting dangerous as she looked prepared to fight again.

There was enough hatred and anger in her eyes that told Dean that if it came to blows he may actually lose. A good mother protecting her child was one force on earth even he was afraid to fight against. Because that kind of love could win a war with only one woman fighting against the world if necessary and Katie was proof of that.

Dean could sympathize, he would go to the same lengths to protect his baby brother.

"Where'd you learn something like that?" Dean asked. T

he question caught Katie off guard and she took a deep breath looking confused. For now the situation had been succefully de-escalated as Katie blinked and shook her head asking "Learn what?"

Dean tredged cautiously into the question for fear of setting her off again "About werewolves?", "I've never heard that before."

"College.", "I had to do a paper on mythological beasts.", "There's supposedly also Wolf's Bane and if two werewolves were to bite eachother that can lift the curse." Katie responded sounding a little less hostil.

"You'll try everything, right?" Katie asked pleadingly.

The tears were back now as she hoped that anything might work.

"We'll do everything we can." Dean nodded. But then he asked in harsh tone "But you know the odds of anything actually working right?"

"Do you know the odds of you and your brother actually leaving here alive if you so much as hurt my child?" Katie retorted equally harsh.

Sam went over all the deaths in his head the first dead person had been a pushy bill collecter that had harassed the Lamberts for little Sam's unpaid medical bills. Another person had been a cruel uncaring boss that had laid Eugene off and put the family in financial hardship. There was also a teacher that had called social services on the Lamberts because the oldest three children had missed so much school due to the youngest child's chemo.

Reviewing all the people that had posed a threat to the family and that may still pose a threat to them Sam felt bad for the Lamberts because they had, had really crappy luck and now there was this werewolf thing to boot.

Sam staked out the home of who he was certain would be the werewolf's latest victim, a sherrif that had not only given no help to find the missing Eugene Lambert but had harrassed Katie and blamed her for her husband's disapearance.

Sam didn't have to wait long as a shadowy figure appeared in the treeline behind the house.

The figure stalked around the home oblivious to the man stalking it. Once it was in the light and revealed to indeed be Eugene Lambert as a werewolf, Sam opened fire putting two silver bullets in the beast's heart for good messure.

He had just enough time to see the beast transform back into a man and die, then the youngest Winchester had to flee as the lights inside the home came on.

Chapter 4

Katie was wearing a groove in the floor from pacing and her youngest children were still distraught.

Little Haylee looked at Dean aprehensively but found the courage to whisper to her mother "Mom is he going to kill us?"

Katie stopped pacing and looked taken aback, she hadn't thought her children would grasp any part of what was happening other than their fear.

"No." Katie replied flatly . "We are ALL going to be okay."

"Then why won't he just leave?" Haylee asked glaring at Dean with a look that uncaningly looked identical to the look her mom had shot him earlier.

As the sun came up Katie shot Dean a look that said "Try and stop me I dare you." as she rushed for the door to the room under the stairs.

Justin had broke free of his bonds at some point after he had been put in this room and there were claw marks that had taken chunks out of the solid cement and steel walls.

Ignoring Dean, Katie rushed to Justin's side. She got him up and got him into the kitchen and fed him breakfast.

Like with the other children she tried to pretend there was nothing wrong and when Justin asked why she was crying Katie said that she was sad because he was growing up to fast and hugged him close.

The boy acted as if nothing had happened the night before and still behaved toward Dean as if he were a beloved uncle, which even though he didn't show it killed Dean on the inside as he said bitterly "He bounced back quickly.", "Didn't he?"

"That's because he's Autistic YOU SON OF A..." Katie raised a shaking hand to her mouth.

"He's a higher functioning Autistic child he doesn't understand any of this." Katie said reeling in her temper.

"We don't talk about it the way we do Sam's cancer because we don't want people to think of him as disabled. He's a fully capable boy who'll have a bright future, if the universe could just stop taking a dump on our family for even a second and allow him to even have a future that is."

Dean felt truly bad for this family. He knew having TWO special needs children was probably difficult and he figured handiling everything on her own probably felt impossible for Katie.

Then adding in the fact that there were two lunatics that had posed as family and made her trust them only to turn around and threaten the life of her child.

Dean knew that, that probably equaled worse luck than even he and Sam tended to have.

Sam came in and nodded his head that he had killed the werewolf, now all that they could do was wait to see if it worked.

Dean had promised to try anything and he had Sam searching the net for a place near by that might sell Wolf's Bane and he set to looking over the research they had done on this case before coming here, someone in this town had to be the werewolf that turned Eugene Lambert and he was going to find out who it was before nightfall come hell or high water.

There had been deaths of people that had not been a threat in any way to the Lamberts and they all tied back to a man Eugene Lambert had considered his best friend. Tonight was the last night in the full moon's phase so Dean had to figure a way to get that man to Katie's house and get him to turn to provide the possibly curing bite to Katie's son if nothing else worked.

Sam found a place to buy the Wolf's Bane and left to make the purchase and to get ahold of one David Early the best friend of Eugene Lambert, leaving Dean alone with Katie again.

When Sam returned he carried in an unconcious David over his sholder (aparantly he wouldn't have come the easy way) and in his free hand he held the bag of Wolf's Bane. Sam laid the bag in the kitchen and put David in a chair and tied him down.

Katie prepared the Wolf's Bane according to the book she still had from college. When Justin drank it he made a face and said it tasted gross.

"It's good for you.", "Finish the whole glass." Katie commanded in a motherly tone.

As night fell Katie settled her three youngest children in one of the bedrooms. Then she went to sit at Justin's head and ran her hand throug his hair as she tearfully sang him to sleep in the room under the staircase.

Once Justin closed his eyes Sam grabbed Katie and guided her from the room.

Katie pressed her back to a wall and slid down bringing her hands to her face, rocking back and forth while crying in a whisper "Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please."

Dean stood at the doorway of the room turning the gun over in his hands as he waited for either the boy or David to turn.

Sam knelt beside Katie and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder "If he turns we'll try to get the other werewolf to bite him but I can't make any guarantees that we can do that or that it'll be succeful if we somehow we manage to do it."

Katie nodded her head but didn't remove her hands from her face as she continued to cry.

Soon she was watching helplessly as Dean aimed the gun into the room under the stairs, she heard the shot that ended the life of her son, screaming she tried to come to a stand but Sam held her down. "NO!", "NO!", "NOT MY CHILD YOU BASTARD!" Sobbing harder than ever she fought to get to her child, out of nowhere hands grabbed her, REAL hands and she jolted awake but not before landing a solid punch to Sam's face.

Her eyes flew open and she was breathing hard.

"You were having a nightmare." Sam said clutching his bruised cheek.

Katie looked around wildly and tried to run for the room under the stairs and was halted by Sam grabbing her around the waist and dragging her back saying "Calm down, he's okay.", "He's been sleeping, peacefully, for a couple of hours and he hasn't made the change yet."

The poor woman looked deranged with bloodshot eyes and dark circles as she realized it had really been just a bad dream.

"Nightmare." Katie whispered understanding. "How is it I was able to even fall asleep?" The question was directed at herself more than the brothers but Sam answered anyway "You didn't sleep at all last night and you've been crying almost all day, you were exuasted."

"What about David?" Katie asked as she rembered there was him to "deal with" to.

"He made the change and we had no choice but to kill him, he was just to strong." Dean replied.

"If Justin stays asleep the rest of the night without changing we'll be pretty sure he's cured." Sam said in an attempt to comfort Katie.

"But if he makes the change, you know what's going to happen." Dean said brazingly and when Sam shot him a look Dean said "Just tryin to keep it real with her Sammy."

Katie didn't waver as she said "If you're going to kill my child, you'd better kill me to.", "Because there is nowhere that I won't find you and I will kill you both." She had that dangerous look about her again, she'd meant every word.

"You know what he is!" Dean exclaimed.

"I don't care." Katie said stone calm. "He's still my son."

As the sun rose that next morning Katie sprung to go to Justin's side. The boy had slept the entire night and had never made the change.

Katie cradled him bawling as she rocked him whispering " Oh GOD, Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.", "GOD thank you so much." She never even realized the moment that Sam and Dean took off all she knew is when she looked back they were gone.

As they disposed of the body of David Early the Winchesters made sure to make it look like he had been the one to shoot Eugene Lambert and vice versa, because Katie had already dealt with to much to be blamed for their deaths to and they didn't want her knowing that it had been Eugene that had turned Justin.

On their way out of Iowa Sam could see how much this case had really bothered Dean by the one tear that streamed down his cheek and said to ease his brother's hurt "One day Katie's gonna realize her son's alive because of us, but we have to realize it now.", "Dean you could have killed that child and been justified because you were right he was a werewolf but WE did everything to try and cure him instead, even when WE were sure it wouldn't work, WE still chose to try and that child is alive because of US!"

This is the end of Disc 1. I will publish Disc 2 when it is completed. Please review!(For EVERYONE That's already read this: I went through and fixed the formating (or at least I tried) and the fonts. PPLLEEAASSEE tell me what you guys think of it now.)