Disclaimer - Please see earlier chapters
As promised new bit this week and have changed the rating. Hope you - well hope you still read it as it is a bit on the angsty side.
Let me know what you think about it good bad or indifferent.
Ken Gregory felt kind of pleased with himself as he drove up to the Roadhouse. The sun had begun to beat down, beginning to dry out the ground from the long rainy spell. He hadn't told Molly about what he was going to do; figured that even though he probably could do the job by himself, asking for John Winchester's opinion would earn him some brownie points.
"Hello, John," Kenny said as he found John at the back of the Roadhouse.
"Ken?" John said coldly. "Molly ain't here."
"I know," Kenny replied. "I'm here to see you."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I was wondering if I could have your input on something."
John sat, looking at the file that he had been handed: attacks in a small town in Kentucky appeared to be following a cycle which had started up again. Local officials had reacted to the disappearances by culling the cougar population in the region, which had grown much larger thanks to the Pulse.
It was one of the few miracles of the damn thing. The halt in urban spread, thanks to the attack in 2009, had given many of the plants and animals that had been on the brink at the turn of the century some breathing space.
According to Kenny, they possibly had a fairy cat on the prowl, and if they didn't catch it this time then it wouldn't be returning to this area for another fourteen years. He just needed to check that he had his figures right.
Everything seemed to tie in, but something at the back of John's mind didn't like it, and it wasn't because it was Kenny who was the one that had handed it to him.
"So, what do you think?" Kenny asked.
"It seems to tie up, but there is something missing."
"Like what?"
John looked at the young man sitting in front of him. "I don't know."
"You don't know?" Kenny said, not too impressed.
"No, I don't know," John said.
"I've got a few weeks, if I'm lucky, before it goes underground again."
John sighed, remembering when he was as impatient as the kid in front of him, but then again he always had the thought of Dean and Sam sitting waiting on him in a motel somewhere to stop him jumping in head first.
"I can't put my finger on it but something is wrong, something doesn't add up."
"Unless I want to wait until it turns up in another decade, I want to go there as soon as I can."
"You asked my opinion, and you got it," John replied. "But I can damn well see that you made up your mind about what you were planning to do before you handed me the damn thing."
"Fine," Kenny said calmly. "If you think something is up then come with me, see the place, figure out what is wrong and help me get it."
John thought for a second before feeling the weight on his arm. "Stupid roof," he muttered. "Maybe taking someone else along would be a good idea on this, Ken."
"But you're not interested."
John raised his broken arm. "Not that I'm not interested."
"Right, you know someone, then?" Kenny asked.
"Place has been pretty quiet," John replied.
"So you wouldn't recommend anyone?"
"I didn't say that. Starting to dry up out there, should start to pick up, you could see who is in tonight."
Kenny nodded in agreement.
Unfortunately for Kenny, the bar that night was quiet. It seemed like hunters were avoiding the place, though it was usually like that the same time every year: people scattered to where ever it was they scattered to as the weather turned. Those hunters that said that hunting was a 365-day-a-year thing were either damn liars or hunted only where it was warm all year round. Most hunters hit research mode, double and triple-checking their facts before freezing their asses off staking out possible leads as the rain and snow started to come down.
Most of the guys he talked to weren't interested in taking up anything new at that moment, each having their own jobs that they were looking into.
He even resorted to asking Alec, who had turned him down as he didn't understand what they'd be hunting. Not that he could really fault the guy for it – he was a rookie – and if Alec didn't understand what he was looking for, then he wouldn't be much use on a hunt.
He had accepted that he was doing this one alone when he found her standing with a bag beside his car.
"What are you doing?"
"What do you think I'm doing?" Molly asked.
Ken shook his head. "You can't be serious?"
"It isn't really a two-man job, right? My dad's being cautious," Molly replied. "It's about time that I went out. You're always saying that I should get out there, so why not now? But if you don't want me to cover your back…"
"Molly, course I do," Kenny smiled. "But are you sure?"
"Yes. About time I got my hands dirty," she replied.
"With this job, I can't guarantee that," Kenny said as they got in the car.
Ellen threw her bag in the back of the Impala as Alec sat and waited; they'd found Molly's note that morning, and she and Kenny had a good ten hour start on them.
"I'll let you know when I find her," Ellen said as she got into the car.
"I can go," John said. "My arm wouldn't hold me up that much."
"John, it's your damn turn to sit and wait. Right now I need to find my little girl," Ellen said as the panic rose. "I can't lose her."
John pulled his wife close. "You'll bring Molly back here, bring him back here, and this time you let me wring his goddamn neck."
John turned to look at the driver of the car. "Alec, you take care of her, won't you?"
"Sure, Pops. Have them both back here before you know it."
They finally found Kenny in the one of the two motels in the small town that had suffered due to the disappearances and deaths of a number of tourists over the past couple of months.
He was nursing a deep gash on his arm, a couple of bruises, and a large dent in his pride before Ellen had even started on him.
Alec had to hold her back to give Kenny a chance to explain why Molly wasn't with him.
"It was supposed to be a simple hunt. I shot the damn thing, and it didn't go down; she shot it, too. Clean shot, right through its heart. It fell, but it wasn't what it was supposed to be," Kenny said as he sat with his head in his hands.
"What the hell was it, then?" Ellen asked.
"I'm sorry, Ellen. I thought I had it all covered, but I was wrong. The cougar went down, and then she wasn't her anymore; I couldn't keep hold of her. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
"You bastard!" Ellen spat out.
Alec turned to Ellen. "What was it?"
Ellen looked at the sullen man sitting in front of her. "A damn spirit, wasn't it, Kenny? An animal spirit has got a hold of my little girl, and you are telling me 'sorry'."
"We got to find her before she does something," Kenny said.
"Right, where do we start?" Alec asked.
"I'm not sure," Kenny said. "Looking over this stuff again, putting a spirit into it, it seems to have kept to mountain lions. If it has jumped to people before now, then it hasn't stayed in them for too long."
"Right, and what does it do when it takes control?" Alec asked.
"Whatever the hell it wants to," Ellen said, looking at a map.
"So we find her and get this 'spirit' thing out of her?" Alec asked. He hadn't had a lot of experience with the spirit or possession side of hunting; the few salt and burns he had been on hadn't made a lot of sense, but they seemed to give the people involved some reassurance.
Either that or the desecration of the grave of someone close to them, friend or not, had been enough to scare the person behind the so-called 'haunting' to stop whatever they had been doing.
"You're not coming," Ellen said to Alec.
"What?" Alec asked. He'd expected that she may have told Kenny that he was staying, but not him.
"Alec, do as you're told, stay here. Kenny and I will be back soon."
"Ellen, I promised John that I'd make sure nothing happens to you. I can't do that if I'm not with you."
Ellen shook her head. "I'm not putting you in the firing line, too damn risky."
"What are you talking about?" Kenny asked, causing Ellen to turn to him.
"We get Molly out of this and then you stay the hell away from my family, you hear me, Kenny?"
"Ellen, I'm going with you guys," Alec argued as Ellen faced down the other man.
Ellen didn't break eye contact with Kenny as she replied to Alec's statement. "Alec, you are staying here. I'm not risking having that thing have a brand new type of cat to play with."
"Ellen, I can take care of myself," Alec said, causing her to turn around.
"Alec, you are staying here and that is an order."
Ellen put a hand on his shoulder as Alec clenched his jaw. "Alec, please, I'm scared enough. I can't take a chance that I could lose both of you. If this thing jumps again, I don't know where it will go, but if it jumps into you and it changes you. You move too fast as it is, so the only way to stop you would to be… Do you understand?"
Alec nodded. "Yeah, I think so."
"What do you mean 'brand new type of cat to play with'?" Kenny asked Ellen before finally putting everything together. He glared at Alec, his face barely concealing his disgust, "Christ, you're one of these those freaks, aren't you?"
"The term is transgenic, if you don't mind," Alec said before turning to Ellen. "I'll stay, but if you aren't back in four hours, I'm coming after you."
Ellen nodded. "We'll be back before that."
Alec sat at the edge of the motel bed as the sun went down and the minutes ticked by. They had been gone three hours and twenty-four minutes before he started checking the kit he had brought with him. Three hours and thirty-nine minutes when he started folding up the map that showed the planned search pattern. Three hours and fifty-seven minutes when he left the room and headed to the car.
Thanks to his enhanced eyesight, he didn't have to worry about the lack of light to navigate through the trees. Actually, the lack of light made finding their flash lights easier. Kenny was lying unconscious beside his. Alec was checking that the guy still had a pulse before he heard the yelling. As he headed towards the noise, Alec found them, both precariously close to the edge of a steep drop.
Molly was snarling as she knelt over Ellen, one hand clamped around her throat as she choked the life out her mother. Alec barrelled into Molly, knocking her off balance and causing her to release her grip on Ellen, but he kept moving, too, slipping down the side of the gorge that he had sent Molly down.
As he fell to the bottom, Alec found himself in a small group of trees; Molly was there too.
She was snarling as she got to her feet and started to circle him. Alec watched and waited for her to make a move. She wasn't his friend at that moment. When it was one on one, you had an opponent, an adversary, someone to overcome, someone to bring down. It was about tactics as much as skill; that was what he had been taught since as far back as he could remember. Unfortunately, right now that meant facing a feral Molly.
She lunged at him, which he quickly countered, but not before he worked out that 'possessed' Molly was a hell of a lot stronger and faster than plain old sarcastic, stubborn, 'I work in a library and know a lot of little facts that would really bore the rest world' Molly.
She didn't back down, didn't seem to get tired, matched him with a level of ferocity that made up for what she lacked in training, but Alec's head was starting to fog over. He was still able to concentrate on what he was doing, still able to focus on the battle, but something was happening to him.
She was getting closer again as they continued to circle one another.
Alec bared his teeth. Molly suddenly scratched at his face as she snarled and hissed at him. Alec shook his head, trying to clear the fog that had begun to cloud his thoughts.
She moved quickly, knocking him to the ground. He struggled, trying to get her off him as she clawed at his face and chest. He reached out grabbed her by the hair. She lashed out for a second before she stilled, allowing him to pull her face closer to his. Her breathing hitched in anticipation as she surrendered, letting him flip her, pinning her to the ground.
It was then that a little voice in the back of his head finally woke up and told him what the hell had caused the fog that seemed to leach into every pore, just as they started to tear at each others clothes. How he had felt something like this feeling before, but never so strong, never to the point where he found that he couldn't take a step back and walk away.
However, by the time he had finally realized what was happening, it was too late; he couldn't stop himself. Something else was in control. His body had turned traitor, and all that what little of his mind that remained conscious could do was scream, 'No'.
John looked at the trail, continuing to follow the path that had been left by them. Ellen had been sure that the two of them where together when she had called him to come and find them three days ago. The trail at least still bore that out: two set of tracks.
Kenny had at least stuck around to help with the search, not that he had much option considering Ellen was stuck at the motel with Billy.
The trail led to a small cave; at least the two of them had been somewhere dry. Kenny had found the carcass of a small deer; its neck had been snapped and it had been hidden in a tree nearby, and from the looks of it, bits of it had been torn off.
From what John could guess, it had been killed a couple of days before, and they had stashed it as a food store while they were otherwise occupied – not that John really wanted to over think that right now. All he wanted was them to be all right, to get them home, to get them free from whatever was making them its meat puppets. Anything else could be dealt with after that.
John had sent Kenny around the back to make sure there wasn't a back way out, although it was more to do with the fact that he really didn't want to deal with Kenny as well as anything else he might find.
He moved cautiously through the cave; it was warm and dark. He could see a figure lying at the back, and he moved forward, raising the weapon he had brought. It was Alec that was lying there, asleep on his side. He wasn't wearing any shoes or a shirt, but there he was, stretched out on the floor of the cave, asleep.
John took a small step forward, careful not to make a sound or be seen in case Alec woke up; it was then he saw that Alec wasn't alone. An arm was wrapped round Alec's waist; John sucked in his breath. Molly was there, curled up against Alec's back.
John stilled as he watched Molly raise her head and proceed to nip at Alec's shoulder, causing Alec to lazily swat her at her. Molly, who was wearing only Alec's shirt, hissed. Alec snarled back at her as he shifted his weight until she was under him, his hand slowly moving up her leg. She mewled a little as Alec stopped for a moment, sitting up before he gently turned her on to her front. He took his time moving his hands down her back; she raised her hips in response. He pulled her up toward him, causing her to yelp a little in pain as he tightened his grip.
John felt sick to his stomach as he watched them. He took a step forward to get a clearer shot before it got too far, before they… Molly turned her head, snarling as she realized that she and Alec were being watched, causing Alec to look for the intruder. John raised the gun and fired, hitting Alec square in the chest as he stood up, though it barely seemed to slow him down.
It took four shots the from tranq gun he brought to bring Alec down. The mixture he was using was a special cocktail, the darts containing as much tranquilizer as rock salt dissolved in holy water.
It only took one of them to take down Molly, although from her reaction of pained screaming and the steam emanating from her; it was the holy water that seemed to cause the most damage.
Kenny came around to the front of the cave as John came out the front carrying Molly, his coat wrapped around his daughter. Kenny asked questions, but John didn't say a word, gently putting her down to allow him to perform the rite to free her from the spirit.
Both men took Molly back to the motel for Ellen to care for. John left Kenny behind to return for Alec.
Kenny stood in the doorway not sure what to do.
"She'll be all right," he said. "She doesn't have to remember any of it, what that spirit or that thing did to her."
Ellen turned to Kenny. "Are you that naïve? She won't remember?"
"Yeah, she won't remember."
"She'll remember, you'll remember, and that 'thing', as you so nicely put it, will remember."
"You can't be serious."
"Go into that room and look at her," Ellen said. "She's in Alec's shirt, and from what John said, Alec is lying in a cave in those hills not much better. They've been like that for the past three days."
Kenny looked away, causing Ellen to glare at him. "Makes you feel sick, does it?"
"No, it doesn't," Kenny said, lying through his teeth.
"Maybe not," Ellen said sarcastically. "Considering you all but outright accused her of cheating since he turned up."
Kenny clenched his jaw. "I have not."
"Don't think I don't know that you haven't. You've been needling her about it, him about it; just because they never said anything, don't mean I didn't know."
Kenny didn't say a word as Ellen continued.
"For some reason she wanted to be with you, thought you were worth it. I couldn't tell her otherwise. She only got in that car to prove to you that she cared about you, only put herself in harm's way because of you," Ellen said. "And now you can't even look at her without seeing the two of them together, can you? Make you feel proud?"
"I'm not leaving here without knowing that thing is dealt with."
"That thing has a name, it's Alec, and you damn well put him in that position. You went into a job half cocked, a job you had been told was off, but you decided to go anyway, and you took my girl with you. You were the lead on this. You knew damn well she didn't have the experience. You allowed my daughter to be taken, and because of you, Alec got taken. It was your fault that the two of them ended up like that, that they…" Ellen stopped, taking a second to think of what to say, "Because of you, my family is paying the price, even Billy. He shouldn't be dealing with the stress of this."
"I'm sorry, Ellen."
"Sorry doesn't cut it," Ellen said curtly. "John will be back soon. Do you understand what that means?"
Kenny clenched his jaw before he nodded his response.
"So, prove to me that you are the stupid little coward that I've always taken you for and go, and pray to God he never finds out where the hell you are because I won't stop him coming after you," Ellen said before turning to go into the motel room.
John pulled up in the pickup truck as Ellen continued to tend to their daughter.
"Where's Kenny?" John asked as he came into the room.
"Gone," Ellen said as Molly started to wake up.
"Mom?" she asked, she looked around the small room, "Where am I? Mom? "
"It's all right," Ellen said, moving over to still her panicking daughter, who was scrambling to get up.
"Where is Alec?" Billy asked as his mother calmed Molly down.
John swallowed. "Billy, stay here, okay?"
Ellen shifted off the bed as she looked at her husband. "Billy, stay with your sister."
"Why?"
"Stay here," Ellen said as John turned to leave the room.
She followed him outside. "Where is he, John?" John didn't reply.
"Where is Alec?"
John refused to move as she went to the back of the truck. Alec was lying unconscious under a tarp.
She turned to see the gun in John's hand.
"No, John, you can't."
"Ellen, she's covered in bites and bruises. She must have tried to fight him when they…"
Ellen lifted the tarp to get a better look at Alec. "So is he. John, they fought each other."
"I couldn't get it to come out of him," John stammered as Ellen took away the gun. "I performed the rites and nothing happened. Ellen, it's still in him, and I can't get it out."
"John, that doesn't mean you have too…"
John shook his head, "He wouldn't want that thing walking around in his skin Ellen."
"But you don't know that it is," Ellen said, "The thing that was in her could have been controlling him. From looking over Kenny's stuff over the past few days, some of those attacks involved more than one cougar. It could have just taken over the cat part of him."
"What?"
"John, this is Alec here," she said carefully, "And even though you know what he is, you don't see it sometimes, because you don't want to. It isn't because you don't love that boy, you do, but you see him as a way to make up for some of your mistakes with Sam and Dean."
"What are you talking about?"
Ellen stood there in between John and the unconscious Alec. "John, Alec isn't all human; there is a part of him that is different, a part he keeps to himself because it frightens him because he thinks it frightens everyone else."
"So?"
"Things might work differently for him. What did he say about that heat thing when Max was here? That there are chemicals and things that make him act out of sorts, what if it whammed him with a load of those or something."
John shook his head, "No, he said even when that happens he's still in control."
"Are we sure of that? What if that spirit took Molly dosed him with so much of the stuff that he wasn't."
"So, you saying that what took over Molly brought out the real him? The animal in him? That there was nothing possessing him at all?" John asked, his voice tinged with confusion and disgust.
"I don't know, it's possible. John, you know damn well that you don't need to have something crawling inside to make you act like its puppet."
"But that would mean that at least part of him knew what he was doing. She was possessed, she was trapped inside herself, he knew it and he still went ahead and …." John said angrily, "I brought him into our home and now he's…"
"Stop it, John," Ellen said, cutting him off. "Molly would have killed me if it wasn't for him. This is Alec here, our Alec, you can't know, you can't be sure of anything until he wakes up."
"What if the thing that wakes up isn't the Alec we know? What if it's the animal or something worse?" John replied, running his hand over his face. "What if he can't wake up? I put four darts in him, that's enough to kill an elephant."
"John, he's breathing, and you don't know what he's going to be. Give him a chance, please," Ellen pleaded, trying to hold back the tears.
Alec stirred. He was sore, stiff and his head was cloudy. He swallowed, finding that his mouth was dry – actually, it felt as if he hadn't drunk anything for days, not something he had done since his time at Manticore. He tried to sit up, and finding that he couldn't, felt panic rise in him; his hands and feet were bound securely to the bed he was on.
Someone held his head, stilling him, allowing a glass to be brought to his lips.
"It's water, sip it slowly," John said coldly.
Alec looked at John, not sure what was going on, taking a second before doing as he was told. As John put the glass down, Alec looked around him; he was in one of the smaller rooms of the Roadhouse. There was one of those key things that he's seen pictures of in John's books drawn around the bed that he was tied to. The only other furniture in the room was the chair that John had returned to, beside which sat a shotgun.
"What's going on?" Alec asked tentatively.
John brought the gun to his lap. "What do you remember?"
"Remember? What do I have to remember?" Alec asked. "Pops, what's going on? Why are you…?"
John primed the shotgun. "What do you remember, Alec?"
Alec swallowed, his heart in his throat; he always knew that he was never going to go out peacefully in his sleep, but he never thought it would be like this. "I…Molly… I remember we were after Molly… Is she okay? Did you find her?"
John nodded.
Alec slumped. "Thank God. I remember we were in the woods, and I couldn't get her to stop and …" Alec tried to sit up again as he remembered what happened next. "Oh God, no, please tell me no, tell me I didn't. Pop, I didn't, did I?"
John silently watched Alec break down in front of him, begging John to tell him that it wasn't true.
Alec stopped, taking a breath as John sat there resolutely refusing to say a word.
Alec turned and looked John squarely in the eye, "Kill me."
"What?" John asked, surprised.
Alec pleaded, "Please, kill me."
John clenched his jaw. "No."
"You don't understand. I was out of control, I can't become like… Kill me, please."
John stood up. "No."
"I couldn't stop myself. John, please, if you can't do it, give me that gun and leave."
"I'm not giving you an easy out," John said, picking up the gun before he left the room.
It was three days before John entered the room to untie him. He had only seen him since he had woken up, though John had barely said a word to him.
"Bathroom time?" Alec asked quietly.
John said nothing as he unlocked, the restraints.
"John?" Alec asked confused as John unlocked the handcuffs.
"No," John said coldly.
Alec turned his head to look around the room for a weapon, causing John to still after he finally freed Alec, "I told you the other day that you are not taking the easy way out."
"I'm sorry," Alec said in barely in a whisper as he turned and faced the wall, curling up into a little ball on the bed. He began to cry. "Tell her, I'm sorry."
"Get up and get dressed," John said, not replying to what Alec had said. "You look like shit."
John left him alone in the small room after that with the food plate, a glass of water, and a change of clothes on the floor, letting Alec disconnect from the world.
It was a little after dawn when he left the room, rooting around in the back of the Roadhouse, but he couldn't find what he wanted.
"You looking for something?" John asked as he caught Alec looking around the bar.
Alec took a breath, "You cleaned out the place?"
"I told you, you aren't taking an easy way out," John said curtly.
Alec turned around to face him. "How is she?"
John closed his eyes. "As well as… She doesn't blame you, blames herself."
"Wasn't her fault," Alec said. "I should have done as Ellen first said. I should have stayed in the motel."
"Maybe you should have," John said coldly, leaving Alec alone.
Alec stayed near the Roadhouse and garage. He didn't speak to anyone, not that there were many customers at the bar; Ellen had closed up shop when it happened.
He wasn't too sure why he stayed, but he couldn't seem to make himself leave, and it wasn't because he didn't have anywhere he could go. At least he stopped outwardly trying to goad John into doing something.
John barely said a word. He didn't responded to Alec's actions, whether it was Alec trying to make him angry enough to do something or him asking what he could do to make it better, should he stay or go. Instead John made his feelings toward Alec clear enough with a look or cold, firm but simple 'No' whenever Alec could get anything out of the man.
Most of the time John watched Alec, in case he got too close – to Ellen, to Billy when they went over to the Roadhouse, to the house, causing Alec to stand still in the yard as John stood at the front window.
Molly didn't come out of the house for the most part, not crossing paths with Alec until one day when she walked in on him in the garage.
"Alec?" she said, surprised to see him in the garage.
"Molly?" Alec said. "I'm just getting something for my bike. I'll be going."
He backed up, trying to get put as much distance between the two of them as possible, although Molly was blocking the only entrance to the place.
"It wasn't your fault."
Alec shook his head. "It doesn't matter."
"Yes, it does," she said. "It was my fault; I attacked you."
"No, I took advantage. You weren't yourself," Alec replied.
"I forced you," she said quietly, "I let it take me over and then I forced you."
"No, you didn't."
She took a tentative step toward him. "I don't know how to fix this."
"You can't," Alec replied, pushing past her to get out of the garage.
John was sitting in the Roadhouse, nursing a glass of Jack, when Alec came into the bar.
"I've got to go," Alec said, looking at the floor.
John turned his head to look at him, saying nothing.
"I've got to go to Seattle."
"Really?" John said. Alec nodded.
"I don't expect you to believe me, but I got a call from Joshua; something's happened."
John twisted on his stool to better face Alec. "What?"
"Couldn't get details out of him, but Max has been shot and it's bad."
"How bad?"
Alec shrugged. "I don't know, but everything is about to fall apart."
John nodded. "You should go, then."
"Yeah." Alec took a bit of paper out of his pocket.
"What's that?"
"Logan's number."
"Why are you giving me this?"
Alec looked at the floor again. "I'm going to help sort things out, but I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Why?" John said coldly.
"You know why," Alec replied. "We can't leave things like this. One way or another, we've got to sort something out."
John turned back to nurse his drink. Alec stood there, waiting for some of response from John who didn't say a word; instead John stared at the glass in his hand. After about five minutes, Alec took a couple of steps forward and put the paper on the bar.
"If I don't make it back in three months call that number, tell him what I did," Alec said, his voice trying not to break, "He'll help you find me and I'll do whatever you want."
Alec stood there for a second, hoping for something, although John didn't seem to want to reply. He turned and started for the door.
"What do you expect me to say to Billy?" John asked. Alec stopped in his tracks.
"Tell him I'm sorry. Tell him… Tell him whatever you think is best."
Well that's it for the moment, probably won't be able to post anything for at least a couple of weeks due to Uni stuff but Happy Easter to everyone. Also is it just me or is the formatting starting to act phooey?
