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E

Chapter 14

"In case you've forgotten Dean, you were the one that told her you didn't want anything to do with her ever again," Sam said shaking his head a little as they sat around the bar after all the other patrons had left. Murphy was back to being himself and Connor had returned from his 'nightcap'. While none of the Winchesters suspected where he had been, he knew that his twin knew, almost intimately, where he had spent the passed few hours.

"That doesn't mean squat Sammy," Dean spat, pacing back and forth with his hands on his hips.

"It means everything," John interjected angrily.

"How?" Dean barked, stopping and holding his arms out to the sides angrily.

"Because you know her. She idolises you more than any of us, god when you kids were tiny she wanted to grow up to be just like you," John responded shaking his head a little. Dean dropped his arms and stared absently at his father, memories of their childhood flooding his mind making it almost impossible to concentrate.

One particular memory that Dean had held quite close to his heart was the day Lexi had broken Dean's ex girlfriends nose in the middle of the school they were at. She was a tiny little thing with her bright red hair, he could still see the fire, the anger, the annoyance in her eyes when she laid one on this girl. His girlfriend at the time had caught Dean kissing another girl behind the bleachers at lunch time and she decided to have an all out yelling fit at him in front of everyone. Dean being the smooth talker he was had tried to discuss everything calmly and quietly with her, though she wanted nothing to do with him in the slightest. Lexi had been watching the exchange for some time, her tiny little hands balling into fists as the young girl got louder and louder. She hadn't stepped in until the last minute though. Dean's ex-girlfriend, ex by the point in time, made the crucial mistake of calling him a freak and telling him he had 'daddy issues' and would never be anything other than a jerk. Lexi, without so much as blinking walked straight up behind the young girl, tapped her on the shoulder and socked her one straight in the nose. Lexi had continued on to exclaim loudly that the girl had no right to talk to her brother that way and that she was a stuck up little bitch that didn't deserve Dean's attention and if she wasn't suck a prude and a bore maybe he would have been inclined to spend more time with her. She gave the young girl one final kick to the shin before grabbing her big brothers hand and dragging him out of the school gates, making sure to take Sam with them as she did so. Needless to say, they never went back to that school again.

It always made Dean smile the way Lexi had reacted so instinctively, so protectively to someone hurting and humiliating her family. Standing there in that pub, staring at his Dad, he realised that Lexi was more like him than he had ever imagined. She was just the same as he was, stubbornly loyal and painfully protective in every sense of those words. He knew from the second she had been born that she was going to turn out just like him, though he had always found it bizarre that she was born with fire engine red hair he also knew that it was that exact colour that would make her the little fireball she would grow into.

"We need t'help her," Murphy said almost immediately, noting a dull silence filling the room.

"Aye," Connor nodded, his mind reeling with the information that had just been freshly explained to him by Murphy.

"Where do we even start looking though?" Sam asked dejectedly. There was an awkward silence that fell across the room. Connor, Murphy and Doc all knew where she was, and Doc knew that the boys knew, though none of them were willing enough to give that information up so readily.

"Conn should know where the lass is," Murphy said suddenly, a mischievously threatening smirk on his face.

"Why the fuck would your brother know where my sister is?" Dean asked stopping dead in his tracks and looking at the two Irish twins.

"Because, he went and did her earlier on tonight," Murphy replied simply, leaning back against the bar and smiling at Connor.

"Fuck you!" Connor cursed loudly, grabbing his brother in a headlock and tackling him to the ground angrily.

The truth was, it didn't bother Connor that much that Murphy had said what he had, it was more the fact that he didn't want everyone here to know that Doc had been hiding her for the past few months.

"You've known where she's been all this time?" John questioned, his voice low. Connor and Murphy both stopped instantly, Connor's hand still locked around his brothers throat.

"No sir, not all this time," Connor replied quickly, shoving his brother into the bar top one last time before straightening up.

"Do you know where she is now?" John asked, his voice barely above an angry whisper.

"No sir, not exactly," Connor said shaking his head a little.

"Don't you dare fucking lie to me you Irish pig!" John yelled grabbing Connor by the back of the neck and throwing his head against the bar, his gun aimed at the young mans temple.

"Woah woah, easy there!" Murphy exclaimed, his hands up in front of him as everyone stood stock still.

"That is my fucking baby out there, if you know where she is, or have any single smidge of an idea where she might be then I suggest you speak up right now otherwise I swear to your God I'll kill you," John's voice had taken on quite a hatred as he pressed the tip of the gun into Connor's temple a little harder.

"She was here earlier, I swear, I saw her before I came back t'see you lads, other than that I don't know where she's been, I swear," Connor managed to mumbled, the weight from John's hand on the back of his head beginning to hurt.

"What do you mean she was here earlier?" Sam asked, his eyebrows narrowing in confusion.

"She and I were together earlier on, in the old warehouse next door," he had barely finished the sentence before John had shoved his head against the bar one final time and was half running to the door with his two boys right on his heels.

"W,w,w,w,w, wait," came the forced stutter of the old Irishman behind the bar. The three boys stopped where they were and turned to face Doc, their eyes all blazing with the same unwavering love and fear for their youngest family member.

"What?" Dean barked, unnecessarily angrily.

"Sh,sh,sh,sh, she's been stayin', h,h,h,h,h, here with me," Doc exclaimed loudly, straightening up and flinging his dirty tea towel over his shoulder as the three boys glared at him from the doorway.

"What?" Connor and Murphy said in perfect unison, both simply playing stupid, trying to avoid any further friction than was already evident between the boys.

"You're telling me, that she's been here," Dean raked his fingers across his face, "the whole fucking time!" he yelled.

"Y,y,y,y,y... Fuck! Ass! Yes. Y'little shite," Doc exclaimed, his glare narrowing to match that of the Winchester's gaze.

"Why didn't you tell us old man? We've been drinking here night after night and you couldn't find five fucking minutes to tell us about this!" Dean yelled, his anger pooling underneath his skin ready to explode at any second.

"She was here for sanctuary!" Doc barked back.

"Sanctuary?" Dean started though didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as John stepped forwards, his gun raised and aimed square at the Doc's head.

"Easy there," Murphy hissed, his eyes trained right on the hardened features of the older man before him.

"You people have no idea what is going on here. You think because you've come out on a few simple hunts with us that you understand all of this. You think just because we've taught you how to throw a bit of salt around and play with holy water that you have it all figured out? Well I got news for you, this whole entire, fucked up lifestyle that you've dipped your toes into, is nothing. What you've seen... Is nothing compared to the horrors I've seen. The deaths that are on my head, the blood, the killing, the soul destroying destruction," John walked forwards steadily, his eyes never once deviating from the crinkled old features of the bartender before him.

"You think skipping along behind us is what it's all about. That all the evil, the hate, the horrible, inhumane happenings in this world are all because of these little beasties. You think we travel around, ridding the world of all these nightmare creatures and that the world thanks us. Well, I've got news for you... All of you. This life, this, this job... Is bullshit. It's hard. It's dangerous. It's a fucking horrible, horrible little world to be involved in. It sucks you in, takes everyone you love from you. Kills all the love and affection and compassion you ever knew. You don't have friends, you're not allowed to have friends in this business. It rips your whole wellbeing from you and then kicks you in the ass."

Dean and Sam were both standing dead still in the doorway as their father spoke, his words echoing through them like a bullet through someones heart. Everything he was saying was the truth, and they knew it. They had both lived long enough to see their loved ones taken from them, their friends seeing much the same fate. They didn't spend time with people they loved or cared deeply for because they became targets for the ghouls and the evils that lurked the streets. It killed both of them to hear it, though they knew that it was all truth, and that was what hurt them more than anything else.

"This life is shit. It's hard, it's painful, it's dirty and worst of all, it's fucking lonely. You never see the light of day, you spend all day sleeping, then all night hunting things that want to eat your very soul then you return to some dirty, piss ant hotel room where the coffee tastes like rats piss and the beds are lined with sweat and body juices from god only knows who. You think we love this job? You think we do it because we enjoy it? Well let me tell you, we do it because we don't have any other choice. We hunt these things because we have to, and you hiding my daughter away is a fucking crime. A disgraceful act of a fucking useless old man," John stopped dead in his tracks, his gun still aimed straight at the Doc as he narrowed his eyebrows, a strange look taking over his features as he slowly turned to face his two sons.

"Dad?" Sam half whispered, his eyes going wide as they both stared down the barrel of the gun.

"It's a terrible life to live, and you boys deserve to get out now, while you still can," he slowly pulled the trigger back on the gun, his eyes fixed on the terrified looks of the boys in front of him.

Just as his finger curled around the trigger of the gun, the banging of the staff door being opened echoed through the room.

"Dad stop!" Lexi screeched as she threw herself in between the three of them, her arms out wide and her eyes filled with pure fear.

"Oooohh, there you are my darling," John hissed under his breath. In that same instant, both Dean and Sam knew exactly what had happened, though they were too late.

John's eyes flicked over to the all-too-familiar bright yellow colour before he tilted his head back and opened his mouth wide, a putrid black smoke swirling out of him and heading straight for Lexi. Her golden brown eyes went wide, her body rigid as she realised... He had forced her out of hiding. He had used the very thing she loved most to pull her out of safety and into the line of fire and there was nothing anyone could do. She took a few feeble steps backwards as the black smoke encircled her, forcing its way down her throat as she froze where she was standing. Dean and Sam both lunged forwards just as she closed her eyes, swaying backwards and forwards on her heels before opening her eyes and stretching her neck from side to side.

"You son of a bitch," Dean growled, his body tense, his hand on his shotgun as he watched his baby sister examine her hands intently.

"Well, well, well," she chuckled, "this is quite the meat suit after all."