A/N: How long has it been since my last update? I can't even remember anymore. This whole summer has been a blur of heat, summer reading, cleaning, and going to stuff. lol. Well anyway, I hope you guys haven't been waiting too long...
The song used in this chapter is "Coming Home" by John Legend.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
"Those insane, murderous, trigger-happy bastards who killed my husband… now they've taken my son, too?" Angie pondered aloud. "I can't believe this. Haven't they tortured us enough already?"
Sam didn't really have an answer. Actually, he was trying to make sense of everything just like Angie was, albeit less vocally.
"What the hell are they going to do with him, Sam?" Angie panicked. "Don't tell me he's another sacrificial-" but she couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence. The thought was too much.
Sam was about to go over and comfort her, but to his surprise, she kept her composure. Instead of breaking down, the obvious pain in her eyes had manifested into fire.
"So what now?" Angie asked.
"What do you mean?" Sam questioned.
"Well we have to find Jake," Angie clarified. "Now that we know who we're dealing with, and that they have power at least to make cameras glitch… maybe even power over memories… there's no way we can just leave this one up to the police."
Sam nodded. "Agreed."
Angie breathed a sigh of relief. Although she knew that Sam cared about his nephew, some of her was still expecting him to reject her idea. "Okay, so what do you know about that guy? Where could he have wanted to take Jake?"
Sam traced his memory, but it wasn't of much use. "I don't know anything specifically about any of them. Only Toby, the kid that led us into this whole mess, and Fay, their sort-of leader. That guy's not either of them. But he was definitely involved, I recognize his face."
"Alright… so maybe we should go to the church," Angie suggested. "I remember Dean telling me that they had a whole plan worked out, a reason for making holy ground their headquarters. So maybe they took Jake there." Angie hated theorizing, because it forced her to imagine all the possible places and situations her son was being forced into.
Sam was silent for a minute.
"What, you don't think it's a good idea?" Angie asked.
"No, we should definitely check it out," Sam replied. "It's just… I haven't been there since, y'know, that night."
Angie understood now. This was going to be a hard experience for her brother-in-law to relive. "Oh. Well, you don't have to come…"
"No," Sam shook his head in disagreement. "I'm not letting you go there alone. If they were able to get the upper hand on me and Dean like they did, one hunter will be easy for them."
"True," Angie agreed. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"No," Sam admitted. "But I don't have a choice."
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"You IDIOT!" Fay bellowed. The shout echoed through the room and out to the halls of the makeshift prison, bouncing off of the concrete walls at every turn. Its range and sustenance reflected just how pissed off she really was. "Since we began this entire project, I've talked about getting the Winchester brothers!" she continued angrily.
"You-you said bring the youngest Winchester," Simon reminded, desperately hoping that Fay wasn't about to snap his neck for his mistake. However, he knew that nothing short of a miracle could pacify Fay when she was angry.
"I was unaware that there was a boy," Fay admitted as a mutter. "But after over a year of context clues, I think anyone should've been able to figure out that I was referring to SAM!"
All the while, Jake sat watching the argument in fear. He didn't dare move a muscle, for fear of receiving some sort of reprimand from a scary-looking man in the corner that was supposed to "guard" him. He still couldn't figure out exactly what had happened. One second, he was racing his friend Tommy across the playground. The next he could remember, this guy whose name was apparently Simon had brought him to this dreary place. Being a Winchester, he could guess that these were the type of people his father used to go after, but his age and disproportionate size made him unable to even attempt to fight his way out.
"What do you want me to do, take him back and get the right one?" Simon asked.
Fay detected the slight sarcasm underneath his fear and shot him a piercing look. "No, he knows too much now. We've already used all the memory-tampering power Lucifer gave us with your useless stunt at the playground," she chided, not letting her subservient forget his mistake. "Plus, knowing that family, they're already on guard, waiting to strike. We'll have to take our chances with the power of a father/son Winchester sacrifice."
"Do you want me to take the boy to his cell, Fay?" Simon asked.
"Absolutely not," Fay replied. "I'll be the one to take care of that. You can't be trusted anymore."
"But…" Simon tried to protest. Fay cut him off.
"You're going to have a lot of time to think about your mistake inside your cell, Simon," she said. "And even more, once you're sacrificed because of it."
A look of horror flashed across Simon's eyes, but he dared not say anything. If he did, Fay might change her mind and decide to kill him right there.
The man in the corner finally diverted his attention from Jake, switching instead to the scared former Devil's Advocate. He led the horrified Simon out of the room towards the prison area.
"Come with me, Jake," Fay said, grabbing the boy's hand. He wordlessly obeyed and let the woman lead him down the hall, past several jail cells he'd always thought he would only see on television.
"I've brought you a cellmate, Dean," Fay said as she unlocked the barred door. Jake was scared, but that didn't stop his eyes from widening at the sound of that word.
"Sam?" Dean wondered. As he turned over and sat up from his bed, however, he discovered not his brother but his son being shoved inside. "Jake…" he gasped, his voice coming out as a stunned whisper.
"Daddy?" Jake asked warily, still not entirely sure that this wasn't all just some dream. He jumped at the sound of the cell door being slammed closed behind him.
"Hey, you can't keep him here! He's just a boy!" Dean shouted at Fay as she disappeared down the hall.
It was impossible for Dean to discern between the emotions he felt as he looked at his scared, innocent, long-lost son standing there. It was a miracle that he was getting to see his boy again… but why did he have to be put here in this hell? Dean knew that Jake should be outside right now, running around and playing like every other kid his age.
As his son continued to stare at him with a nervous fascination, Dean realized that he would have to stifle his anger at the Advocates for a while and talk to him. Right now, he had to be a father.
A proud smile wasn't hard for Dean to conjure up as he stared at his son for the first time in over a year. "It's okay," he reassured. "They're not going to hurt you." Dean said the words as an absolute truth, but in his mind he was hoping he was right. Jake seemed to believe it anyway, because he was now slowly nodding at his father.
Dean stretched out his arms. "Come here, buddy."
Jake eagerly ran up to hug him.
"Gosh, you grew!" Dean said, beaming as he admired his son's height.
"Mommy says soon I'll be taller than you," Jake grinned.
Dean couldn't help but smile at the familiar tease. "Well, you tell mommy not to make fun of me when I'm not around to defend myself," he instructed.
Jake smiled, but then looked at his father seriously. "Mommy thought you were dead," he informed.
Dean's smile understandably faded. Of course, he couldn't really blame Angie for it. He'd been trapped in Fay's clutches ever since that night in the church, when one of her followers picked him off the floor and carried him away as the surviving Advocates made their escape. If the force of that explosion hadn't sent him careening into that wall, Dean would've been conscious, and able to get away. He sighed as he remembered again that if that was the case, he could've seen his son that very night.
But unfortunately, he had ended up here. And after all this time, it was no surprise to him that Angie wanted closure. Dean's heart sank as he realized the amount of unnecessary grief his wife had gone through.
He tried to think of a way to respond to what Jake had just told him. However, he found himself unable to think beyond the obvious. "Well… I'm not," he said. "I've just been in here."
"So is everyone going to think I'm dead too?" Jake asked.
"No," Dean reassured, "Of course not." He hoped his parenting skills hadn't gotten rusty after being in here alone for so long. "In fact, mom and uncle Sam are probably out looking for you right now." Dean realized that he wasn't just saying this to make his son feel better- he believed it was true. Some hope returned to his heart as he realized that if they managed to find Jake, they would find him too. Dean would finally get to see his family again, and hopefully not under the circumstances in which he'd just been reunited with his son.
A father waits upon a son
A mother prays for his return
I just called to see
If you still have a place for me
We know that life took us apart
But you're still within my heart
I go to sleep and feel your spirit next to me
I'll make it home again…
"How's she doing, anyway?" Dean asked, eager to hear about what he'd been missing.
"Who, mommy?" Jake asked.
"No, uncle Sam," Dean said with a grin. The joke caused Jake to emit a loud laugh- the first ever heard within these prison walls. Even though they were still trapped inside their concrete cells, the simple happiness on Jake's face was infectious. Before he knew it, Dean found himself laughing along with his son. It was the first time he'd done so in over a year.
He hugged his boy once again. "I missed you, buddy," Dean said.
"I missed you too, daddy."
It may be long to get me there
It feels like I've been everywhere
But someday I'll be coming home
Round and round the world will spin
Oh, the circle never ends
So you know that I'll be coming home…
A/N: Please keep up all the reviews that I love so much!
