Full Summary and Warnings in Chapter One…
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Chapter Ten – On the Devil's path
John Winchester wakes up to the smell of pancakes.
He looks quickly at his watch and blanches. It's gone nine o'clock; he slept for seven solid hours! John can't remember the last time he got more than four hours sleep so this is impressive. He'd slept in his clothes so getting himself ready is simply a case of pulling on his boots and finding a bathroom. He splashes water on his face, runs his hands through his hair, then squeezes some minty paste onto his forefinger and rubs at his teeth before rinsing and spitting.
"Morning Dad!" Everyone is sitting at the kitchen table, except for Gemma who's tossing pancakes in a fry pan at the stove.
Dean looks relieved to see him.
"Take a seat, Hon," Gemma says, piling fresh pancakes onto a plate. The table is laden with jams, marmalades, a jug of maple syrup, freshly cut lemons and sugar.
John slides into the chair beside Sammy and ruffles his hair.
"You boys sleep okay?"
"Yessir."
Jax rolls his eyes, which doesn't go unnoticed by John.
"Spoke to Piney this morning," Clay says gruffly, "No luck finding the boy yet. And they've damn near turned the town upside down looking," he runs a tired hand through his greying, sandy hair, "What do we do next, John?"
John glances at Gemma, who offers him a wry smile. She puts a plate of pancakes down in front of him and takes the seat on the other side of him.
"Clay told me everything," she says.
"Everything?" he queries.
Gemma stares into his eyes, her lips pursed and her eyes hard, yet somehow playful.
"Never did like Jonas Montgomery," she shudders, "he always volunteered to help out at the Taste of Charming fundraisers and he always stared at the boys just a little bit too long. His old man gave me the creeps too. But Jonas junior," Gemma shivers again, "he had something real sick in him. A real disturbing sense of….," she sighs, "you could see it in his eyes. A sort of…weak cruelty. Him coming back as a ghost and picking up right where he left off? Totally in character."
John chews a mouthful of pancake thoughtfully.
"Most people don't take the whole 'monsters are real' thing so well," he remarks carefully.
"Yeah, well," Gemma lights a cigarette, "I've seen a lotta strange shit in my life," she meets his eyes again, "enough to convince me that there's real evil in this world. Besides, my Daddy's a reverend and he's been preaching hellfire and brimstone at me since the day I was born."
"Do you believe in God?" Sam asks her.
Gemma takes a longer drag on her cigarette, "Not so much honey," she says, "Coz if there's a God I'm really gonna have to kick his ass. I mean, what the hell does he think he's doing, letting so much bad shit happen?"
Sam glances at Dean, almost like he's seeking permission, before confiding, "Our Mom always used to say that we had angels watching over us."
Gemma's face melts a little, "I'm sure your Mom's watching over you," she says softly, "because when it comes right down to it, the only thing you can count on is family."
"Amen to that," John agrees.
Clay clears his throat.
"So what's next?" he prods.
"Research. We find out everything we can about Jonas Montgomery: Who he knew, where he liked to spend his time, what he liked to do when he wasn't…..," John breaks off and glances at Sam, "We need to find out what happened to all his stuff after he died; take a look at his old house too. We need to figure out where he's got Luka stashed and we need to know if there could be anything else still holding him here, just in case it wasn't the blood on that knife."
"What else could hold his spirit here?" Jax asks, "What exactly are we looking for?"
John shrugs.
"One job a few years back, the guy'd had an artificial hand; real good for choking the life out of girls. Salting and burning his bones did jack; I had to find the damn hand and melt it to get him to move on."
"Fuck!" says Jax.
John glares at him and Jax glances uncertainly at his Mom.
"Language," Gemma says mildly and Jax frowns.
What the fuck? John thinks he can come into his house, sit at his table, and judge him? Fuck that. Jax is an anarchist and a biker, not some choir boy. Just because John's got his own kids running around all yessir, nosir, three-fucking-bags full sir, doesn't mean that Jax is just going to fall into line and start playing soldier boy. Jax sneaks a quick glance at Clay. The man doesn't give a shit if Jax swears, smokes, drinks, fucks or steals. Although, Jax's lips thin, he does demand complete loyalty and obedience, and not just from his step-son. Still, at least he's not all hung up on good manners.
"The Montgomerys lived over on Tulip Street," Gemma says suddenly, "Moved to Charming from Lodi in the sixties. The rest of the Montgomerys still live in Lodi as far as I know," she frowns, "Jonas inherited the house when his old man died, and an Aunt came down and sold it about a year ago, once they had Jonas officially declared dead."
John puts his knife and fork down carefully.
"When and how did Jonas senior die?" he asks.
Gemma and Clay look at each other.
"Logging accident, wasn't it?" Clay asks his old lady.
She shrugs. "I think so. It happened not long after Jonas came home from college."
"We should look into it. Could be something; could be nothing."
Clay nods. "Where to from here?" he asks.
"I need to get into Jonas' old house. Can you arrange that?"
Clay nods.
"Gemma? You know the local gossip. Can you just….talk to everyone you know? Ask questions; see what you can find out."
"Sure."
"Me and Sammy'll hit the library," Dean says.
"No!" John's tone is clipped and abrupt, "Jonas worked there, Dean. That's the last place we want Sam!"
"Ghosts hardly ever break pattern, Dad," Dean argues, "and Jonas took his victims in the late afternoon. If we go over there in the morning, in broad daylight, if both me and Jax are keeping an eye on Sammy, then everything should be fine. Besides," he adds, "Sam's the one with the bad ass computer skills! We need him."
John's eyes bore into Dean's for a moment and then he nods curtly.
"Alright," he says, "but I want either you or Jax watching Sam at all times! And that's an order. And Sam? You don't move without Dean's say so. Take salt."
Jax grins broadly. "Man! This is so much better than going to school!"
He expects John to glare at him again and is surprised when he receives a grin of approval. Huh. The guy objects to him swearing but is completely cool with him ditching school to go ghost-busting. John Winchester is weird.
X
The librarian has to be fifty, at least. Her short, grey hair is tightly permed, she has horn-rimmed glasses perched on the end of her nose, and she's wearing a navy blue pants suit, with a choker of pearls at her neck. Sam spends a lot of his time in libraries and he knows her type all too well; they're sticklers for the rules and as sour as vinegar. Dean has a theory about why that is and just thinking about that theory makes Sam flush.
Jax is currently explaining to Miss Blue Suit, in hushed, confidential tones, that Dean and Sam are the sons of Clay's cousin John, and they're down on a rare visit from Maine, which is why none of them are in school today. His posture is loose and open, he's smiling widely, and damn if he isn't just about charming the pants off her. Sam flushes again. And Dean? Dean's flashing his most impish smile and lying his ass off, telling Miss Blue Suit that when Jax asked them what sights they wanted to see in Charming, the library was the first place they wanted to go. Dean's flirting shamelessly and Sam thinks that his brother's smile ought to be classified as a secret weapon.
"Libraries," Dean says earnestly, "are just so cool!"
"And plus," Sam adds, deciding to try for some credibility, "I've got a project to finish for school. And the library's got the internet. For research."
Sam has his own secret weapon and he uses it now. The look he gives the librarian is a lot less flirtatious than Dean's and has more of a 'please, please, you've just got to believe me because I'm so totally telling you the truth' quality to it. For good measure he does the puppy dog eyes. Apparently people find them hard to resist.
A few minutes ago Miss Blue Suit had come striding across, all steel wool and vinegar and jabbing fingers, her voice sharp enough to cut through glass. She'd called them delinquents and demanded to know what they were doing in her library during school hours. Now she's all marshmallow soft and voice like honey, ruffling Sam's hair and telling Dean and Jax that they're such good boys for looking after him.
"I can't believe it," Sam snarks when Miss Blue Suit finally goes away, "she's old enough to be somebody's grandma and you were totally flirting with her!"
Dean rolls his eyes.
"Relax," he says, "before you can be a grandma, you've gotta have kids. And before you can have kids, you've gotta have sex. And I've never met an old-lady librarian yet who didn't need to get la-"
"Dean!" Sam hisses, "Shut up! You're sick! You know that? If it's female and it's got a pulse, you'll flirt with it!" Sam frowns, "Actually scrap the pulse part! You even flirted with that ghost-girl in Colorado!"
Dean grins.
"Technically she was a poltergeist Sammy, and you can't really blame me for that. She was hot! You know, for a dead chick."
"Man," Jax shakes his head, "your lives are weird."
"I know," Sam says forlornly. He pulls up the website he'd minimized when the librarian came across and starts making notes. Before long Dean and Jax are almost climbing the walls and Jax has started thinking that this is every bit as bad as going to school.
"Man," he grumbles, "this is so boring! Give me something to shoot already!"
Dean rocks back in his chair. It's one of those typist chairs on wheels and he wonders if he and Jax would be able to get away with racing them in between the book shelves. He sighs. Better not risk it. They'll be screwed if they get kicked out.
Every now and then Sam asks them to get something off the printer for him and Jax and Dean fight over the task every time, until Sam snaps at them that if they don't start taking it in turns he'll start getting the print outs himself.
"I'm taking a bathroom break," Dean says after a while, and he takes off before Jax can complain. He takes as long as he can and as soon as he gets back Jax slips outside for a smoke. Next Dean goes outside to check the car and feed the meter; and then Jax decides he needs a bathroom break. As soon as he's back, Dean announces that he needs to hit the head; and then Jax heads off for another smoke. He feeds the meter again while he's at it which pisses Dean off. He goes outside to make sure that Jax did it right and to make sure his baby is still doing okay; she must be so bored sitting outside a library.
It's around half past one when they all decide that they're hungry. Sam doesn't want to leave the library because he has twelve web sites up on the screen and papers spread all around him, so Dean and Jax argue about who should go out and find them some burgers to smuggle into the library. Jax wins the argument. He knows the town better than Dean and besides, Dean doesn't really trust him to watch Sammy's back properly.
When Jax has gone Dean wheels his chair over beside Sam and looks at the screen.
"How's it going?" he asks.
"Fine, Dean," Sam says shortly, "Of course it'd be better if you two yoyos were helping instead of bouncing off out somewhere every few minutes."
Dean's lips twitch. "Yoyos, Sammy?"
Sam scowls.
"Seriously, Sam, what've you got?"
Sam stays sulkily silent.
"C'mon," Dean punches him playfully on the arm, "tell me what you've found? Please? Please Sam?"
Sam sighs.
"I've got a shitload of background information on Jonas, mostly boring stuff. I found the name of the Aunt who finalized the sale of his house and got her address. I broke into his hotmail account too-"
Dean punches his arm again.
"Nice going Sam! You're the man!"
Sam grins modestly.
"Yeah well, His user name was Jonas Montgomery and his password was JM1963. So that was the email account he wanted people to find."
Dean frowns.
"Huh? Too easy?"
Sam nods.
"So easy an eleven year old could crack it? When Jonas was a Grade A pervert? And there was nothing pervy in there. It was all totally clean and respectable. So not his main email account. If I had more time….." Sam glances up at the clock and shakes his head, "Anyway, probably doesn't matter. I do have a theory about where he could be holding his victims. Nothing concrete yet, but...I'll explain it to you when I'm more certain."
Dean nods his head.
"Nice work Sammy. Just get me something to shoot at soon, okay?"
"Dean!" Jax yells at him from across the library, earning himself a 'sshh' from Miss Blue Suit, "The Mayans just egged your car, man!"
And Dean is out of his seat and bounding down the front steps of the library before Jax has time to even blink.
The Mayans are long gone by the time Dean gets out to the Impala and he's left to kick the curb and hurl empty threats into thin air. There are sponges in the trunk and holy water, so Dean gets to work as quickly as possible, cleaning the dripping egg from his baby and flicking away broken egg shells, all the while muttering furiously.
"Shit, man, I'm sorry," Jax says, "this is my fault. It's me the Mayans are pissed at."
Dean raises an eyebrow.
"Last time I checked it was me that kicked that Miguel dude unconscious. I'm sure your Mayan buddies are plenty pissed at me by now too."
The Mayans had only thrown a half dozen eggs at the Impala and thanks to Jax's early warning Dean has been able to get to it before the egg dries hard. From the time he ran out the library's front door to the time he and Jax are walking back through it again, car cleaned, is barely ten minutes.
Dean is still muttering threats under his breath, interspersed with complaints about the fact that their burgers will now be cold. He looks, finally, towards the computer where he left Sam working and it takes him a long moment to comprehend that Sam is no longer there. Uneasiness stirs in his gut.
"Sam?" he calls sharply, earning himself a glare from Miss Blue Suit.
"Maybe he went to the bathroom?" Jax suggests calmly, and Dean is already half way there, bolting across the library, calling his brother's name. He pushes into the bathroom marked M and sees instantly that it is empty. Still he looks carefully into each stall, searching desperately for….anything. He barrels out of the bathroom and knocks right into Miss Blue Suit. She tells him off for running and shouting in the library but Dean is barely paying attention.
"Have you seen my brother?" he demands, "I just left him for ten minutes and he's gone!"
Miss Blue Suit frowns. "I did see him head towards those stacks over there," she nods towards a row of shelves full of heavy, hard bound books, "perhaps he needed a book? Have you checked between all the shelves?"
And Dean is off again, racing towards the forest of shelves, calling his brother's name, with the librarian's scolding ringing in his ears.
Jax joins him and they tear up and down between the ceiling high stacks, Dean becoming more and more frantic as the search becomes increasingly futile.
"Ma'am?" Dean yells across the library, "Is there another way out of here? Apart from the front door?"
Because Sam has obviously left the building and he didn't come out the front door. The Impala is parked right outside and Dean would've seen him.
Miss Blue Suit is torn between wanting to tell him off for causing such a ruckus in her library and wanting to respond to the desperate fear she sees in his eyes. In the end the latter wins outs.
"Two," she says, "a staff entrance which you can only access from behind my counter and through my office and he didn't go that way. And a fire exit, but that's wired."
"Where's the fire exit?" Dean asks.
"It's wired," the librarian repeats, "we'd have alarms going off and the fire brigade on the door step if he'd gone out that way!"
Dean raises an eyebrow. He's cut through more than one fire door in his time. He looks around and sees the illuminated exit sign arrows. He follows until he finds the fire door, Jax grimly silent beside him. The door hasn't been tampered with.
They return to the computer where Sam had been working and Dean stares sightlessly at it. It's almost a locked door mystery; there are only three ways in or out of the building and Sam didn't go through any of them. And yet he's gone.
Dean's stomach seizes and clenches. Who was it had been stupid enough to say that the library would be safe? Oh yeah, that's right. It was him! Ghosts hardly ever break pattern, Dad. Me and Jax'll watch him. He'll be safe.
And now Sam is gone.
He'd been on to something; he'd been chasing down a theory; he'd had an idea where the ghost of Jonas Montgomery was stashing the kids he snatched. And now he is gone too. Dean may not be the straight A student that his brother is but he can still put two and two together and get four. Jonas Montgomery has been haunting the library; lurking and watching. And he's seen enough of Sam to make him worth breaking pattern for.
"Goddamn it, Sam!" Dean yells, "Jonas!"
He closes his eyes. That sick sonovabitch better not lay one finger on his little brother or Dean is going to rip his goddamn lungs out! This is all his fault! He'd been more worried about his car than his brother and now that disgusting, evil, pedophile prick of a bastard has got Sam and he's going to…Suddenly Dean's legs buckle and before he can stop himself he's crumpled to his knees on the floor.
"No," he says brokenly, "this can't be happening."
"Whoa," he hears Jax say, "We don't know it's Jonas."
"Of course it's Jonas!" Dean snaps, "He's gone, Jax. That bastard took my baby brother!"
And then he feels tears falling down his face and Jax is putting an arm around him and murmuring some shit about how everything is going to be alright. Dean can't quite believe that he's having the mother of all chick flick moments in the middle of a public library with a biker he barely knows, but mostly he can't believe that he let his little brother get snatched by a child molesting ghost, right under his nose.
X
As soon as Gemma enters the Beauty Parlor, she's acutely aware of everyone's eyes on her and she holds herself just a little taller. Some of the ladies in Jolene's Salon of Beauty hold the Biker Queen in high regard; others can barely constrain their distain. Jolene Harvey herself comes across with a smile.
"Hey, Hon," she says, hugging Gemma and kissing her cheek, "what can I do for you?"
Gemma smiles. Jolene is a friend of the club. They helped her out a few years ago when the bank was threatening to foreclose on her business mortgage and she has always been grateful. Gemma genuinely likes the woman and always insists on paying for her treatments.
"You got time to squeeze me in for a quick manicure?" she asks.
"Sure thing, Hon," Jolene smiles and leans in conspiratorially, "I'll just bump that skank Amanda Lowell back by fifteen minutes and slip you in before her."
Gemma smiles. She settles herself down, let's Jolene soak her hands and buff all her finger nails and then she says in a loud whisper, "Did you hear about poor Luka? I can't imagine what Tammy must be going through right now. The boys spent all night looking for him."
And then of course the women are off, retelling everything they know about every other time this has happened, sharing theories, rumors and every other bit of speculative gossip they have ever heard on the subject. Gemma just sits back and listens.
"You know what I think?" Maureen King says, "You know that boy that went missing; Jonas Montgomery? Rumor had it that he was responsible for those killings back in the late eighties," she pauses and there are nods of agreement.
The whole town knew that Jonas Montgomery had been responsible, just as the whole town knew that the Sons had dealt with him, not the law. But most people just thought he'd been run out of town. Or so they told themselves anyway. Maybe it was one of those things that it didn't do to scrutinize too closely, but 'run out of town' was the 'official' town line and everybody was sticking to it.
"Do you think," Maureen pauses, perhaps for dramatic effect, "Do you think he's back?"
Everybody looks at Gemma. What they're really asking is if it's actually possible that he could be back. They're asking her to confirm the 'run out of town' scenario.
"Yeah," Gemma says, "I think he's back," she leaves off from the dead, "And I think he's picked up right where he left off."
"Well," Patricia Jones says, after a suitable pause, "That's sure gonna piss off Laurie-Mae."
"Who?" Jolene asks.
"Laurie-Mae Miller. Jonas' Momma's sister. She had him declared dead so that she could sell his house. My Teddy brokered the deal. Now she'll have to give back the money she made from the sale."
"What happened to all his stuff?" Gemma asks.
Patricia shrugs.
"Probably went straight to the dump. That's what I would've done with it."
Gemma nods.
"You don't happen to have Laurie-Mae's phone number do you? I think maybe I should give her a call…you know, give her a heads up."
Patricia nods.
"My Teddy's got it for sure."
X
Jonas Montgomery's old place is a complete bust.
The elderly couple who now own it are keen to help out, and terrified by the thought that the house's previous owner may be back in town, but they haven't seen anything unusual, untoward or suspicious. No cold spots, no flickering lights, nothing moving or going missing. John excuses himself to use their bathroom and creeps around with his EMF reader, but it doesn't make a single blip.
The house has both an attic and a basement and the couple give Clay and John permission to do a thorough search of both, just in case Jonas – serial killing child molester – is hiding out in one of them….in the walls, or in some secret cubbyhole.
Clay and John conduct a painstakingly thorough search, but find nothing. Finally – after coffee and apple tea cake – they make their escape and head over to the club rooms to check how the search for Luka is going.
Piney shakes his head sadly and updates Clay on everywhere they've looked and everyone they've talked to. They talk it through and decide that Clay will join the search and John will head over to the library to help the boys with the research.
Clay takes off on his bike and John walks to the library. Entering the old building he nods to the blue suited woman behind the desk and then notices that Dean is kneeling on the floor with Jax tentatively rubbing his back.
There is no sign of Sammy and John's blood runs cold.
"Dean!" he bellows, "Report!"
Jax has never in his life seen anyone snap to their feet as fast as Dean now does.
"Yessir!" he pauses, his face working painfully, "Sammy's missing."
John clenches his jaw. He reaches into the inside pocket of his jacket and takes out the EMF Reader. It registers slightly at the desk where Sam has been working and John frowns.
Jax and Dean follow a couple of steps behind him as John walks around the library holding the device out at arms length. When they get to the spot where the librarian indicated that she last saw Sam, the EMF reader goes nuts and Dean's face drains of all color.
John rounds on him.
"What happened to never letting him out of your sight?" he barks, "You or Jax were supposed to be eyeballing him at all times!"
He glares at Jax, who's slouching against a book shelf and the intensity of his gaze is such that Jax finds himself straightening up despite himself.
"It wasn't Dean's fault," Jax defends, "The Mayan's egged the Impala."
John blinks.
"And that took two of you to deal with, did it?"
"Look, John," Jax begins and suddenly John is in his face.
"You and I are not on first name terms," he hisses, "If you're gonna mess around with some Goddamn gang bangers instead of doing your job, then don't expect me to treat you like an equal. You and Dean screwed up and now Sammy is missing! So don't expect me to treat you like anything other than the kid you are!"
Jax's chin juts out defiantly and he meets John's eyes with a level stare. He doesn't even last three seconds, though, before he's lowering his gaze and staring at the floor. It's self preservation more than fear; John looks like he's about thirty seconds away from putting someone's head through a wall, and Jax would really prefer that that someone wasn't him. And besides, it's sort of possible that maybe John has a point.
"I'm sorry," he says, his voice soft but sincere, "I should've gone back inside sooner."
"This isn't Jax's fault, Dad," Dean says, "This is on me. I put the car before my brother."
"Damn straight it's on you," his father retorts, "You had one job, Dean, one; keep your brother safe; and you screwed it up!" John Winchester pauses for breath, then demands, "Keys?"
Dean hands over the keys to the Impala wordlessly.
John strides across to the computer desk that Sam was working at and picks up all his research, along with his writing pad and pencil. He checks the PCs internet history and then turns back to the two fifteen year olds who are staring at their feet again.
"Let's go," he says and pushes them towards the door.
Jax chances a quick glance at Dean. He doesn't think he's ever seen anybody look so completely gutted in his life.
He wants to tell his new friend that his Dad is a total dick; that he's a bully and expects way too much from Dean. But he has a sneaking suspicion that he'd be wasting his breath.