John got the phone call at a gas station in Kansas. He was heading home for a week. After the phone call he instantly got back on the road and headed to Wisconsin.
"Hello?" The young boy's voice on the phone asked. John felt a lot of fear. That was the number he gave to people he'd saved who might need help again. Hearing a child's voice, only a few years younger than his own boys', was terrifying.
"Yeah." John said, gruffly.
"John Winchester."
"Yes, who is this?"
"I'm Adam… Adam Milligan, Kate's son."
"Kate," John Said. He wouldn't forget her, ever. Lucifer's painful hugs like he was afraid John would never come back made it so John could never forget her. "Yeah, I know her. What can I do for you, kid?"
"I'm your son."
The silence that followed was too heavy for John to bear for long. If asked later, John wouldn't even remember breathing.
"How old are you?" John asked.
"I just turned twelve. I kept asking mom to tell me who my father was. It's all I asked for. Please."
John couldn't have said no, because he knew that kind of desperation that went behind that 'please'. John knew it from when Dean had just started talking again and he'd begged John to stay, but John had gone any because he had high notions of saving people and a pain he wanted to quench with revenge. John knew it from when he was a little boy and his father hadn't been there in the morning like he said he'd be, and John had lived by himself for over a week, and he prayed to God to bring his dad back and he prayed so hard the day he was taken away, and he prayed for years until he stopped praying because he figured out God didn't give a shit. He couldn't make this boy beg too, only for him to also be rebuked.
He could have said no, hung up, and gone back to his life. But there would still be that 'please', and a question from a horrible choice that had been haunting John for years.
"I'm in Kansas. It'll take me a few days, but I hope you'll accept me as a belated birthday present."
"Thank you," Adam said.
"Just tell me your address and I'll get on the road.
