Notes: This is pretty sadly short. And it's like, a month later? Wow wtf. o.o Sorry guys. Anyways, here you are. I still remember this story, haven't forgotten. I'm glad we've gotten out of this particular case-file story arc. u3u it was driving me crazy. I've got another few lined up to keep the story moving. For now, have this! :3

Family Business

Chapter 14 - Pretty Pathetic

When they pulled up in front of the house, Dean was nonplussed when it appeared perfectly ordinary. It blended in well with the other half-million-dollar-houses lining the street. Crisp, well-manicured lawn, and a spotless paint job on the house. The neighborhood couldn't have been put up but a year ago, Dean could practically smell the newness of the place. The impala wasn't in the driveway, but Dean hoped that it would be in the garage.

Dean went ahead and picked the lock on the front door, figuring that kicking it open would cause too much noise. He didn't want to give that bitch any chance to prepare for them. Once inside, he sent Sam to look for the garage, and consequently his baby. Dean busied himself with searching the first floor, and after finding nothing, he headed up to the second. He'd thought he'd heard voices up there, as muffled as they were in a frivolously large home like this one. How anyone could live in a house this big boggled Dean, especially if they lived there alone. He could see it if there were like, six kids or something, a giant clan of a family that needed the space. But this was just a waste in his mind.

The voices grew in volume, and Dean crept down the hall, wishing he had his gun. In his panic back at the bar, when the fight had started up, he'd pulled it out only to have it lost in the commotion. All he had to his name was a knife tucked into his boot and one in his belt. He felt naked without it, especially as he knew he was about to face an experienced necromancer who was powerful enough to bind a shifter to her will. He turned a corner and saw light coming out from beneath a door at the far end of the hall. The voices grew louder, and Dean could hear Amanda's, but not Adam's. She was speaking to someone, probably her master, and already Dean knew he was in over his head. Just great.

Dean closed in on the room, listening before he barged in. It wasn't something he usually did, Sam being the one to think ahead. But this time, he knew he had to play it safe. Suddenly though, Amanda's smooth and calm voice changed to one of panic, and she was screaming. Dean decided that it was okay then for him to bust in, whatever was going on in there wasn't in Amanda's favor.

Once he was inside, Dean's eyes searched for Adam, he saw two of him, one on the bed, and the other with his hand around Amanda's throat, strangling her. Dean went for the Adam tied up on the bed. That bitch was getting exactly what she deserved, but he was only mildly disappointed that he wasn't the one that got to do the deed. All the same he was thoroughly relieved to find his baby brother all in one piece, if not a bit cut up. Dean didn't want to think about how or why all the myriad of cuts on his brother had gotten there. A minute later and Amanda's lifeless body was lying on the floor and the shifter was smirking down at her. It wasn't until Dean started freeing Adam from his bindings that the creature acknowledged them.

"Thank you," it said to them, "for letting me go."

"Don't mention it. You might wanna get outta town though, settle down somewhere else before some other hunter finds you whose little brother you didn't help save," Dean suggested firmly, and the shifter nodded, not having to be told twice. It disappeared out the window a moment later, leaving Dean alone with cuddles.

"Did you find the car?" Adam was spluttering at him, "I'm so sorry, let me go, hurry, I gotta go find it-"

Dean was working on getting the rope around Adam's ankles undone when he looked up at him incredulously, "Jeez, kid, she's my car, and even I'm not that worried."

That was a lie, he was that worried, now that he knew Adam was safe, but he wasn't about to let on. He had to keep his game face on for Sammy—Adam. Cuddles, brat, kiddo, the baby, the youngest. Dean faltered at the slip, not having made it before and feeling disoriented. He wanted to say that the emotion tangling about in his intestines was guilt, but that wasn't quite right either. He let it go, shrugging.

Sam appeared in the room then, followed by a familiar puppy who was barking and growling ferociously at Amanda's corpse. He threw the keys to the impala towards Dean who barely caught them, slipping them into his coat pocket.

"You okay, Adam?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, is that Lenny?"

"Yep, he was still going crazy in there, by the way, nearly chewed my ankle down to the bone when I let him out," Sam laughed. He picked up the little brute and set him down on the bed next to Adam.

Dean snorted, rolling his eyes, "Seems like you picked a good hunting dog after all, cuddles."

"Yeah," Adam held the suddenly far more agreeable Lenny in his lap and looked to Sam, "he didn't make a mess in there did he?"

"Nope, not that I could tell. Didn't smell or see anything in there."

Adam's whole body relaxed instantly and Dean realized why his brother was so worried about finding the impala. This was what the shifter had been missing when they'd found it, tied up at the hotel. Before Adam would consider anything else, he was ultimately worried about somehow getting in trouble with Dean, about having been a burden by being taken like this. As soon as he was completely untied, Dean reached forward and took Adam's bare shoulders in his hands and shook him roughly.

"Kid, you really gotta work on that one track mind of yours," Dean scolded lightly, not wanting to cause more harm than good.

Adam ignored him and was saved from having to reply by Sam who was eying Amanda's dead body, "What happened here anyways?"

"Bobby's an awesome babysitter as it turns out, the shifter got here before us and killed her," Dean answered.

Sam laughed, but Dean didn't find the situation all that funny. If the shifter had turned out to really have some sort of loyalty to Amanda, then Dean and Adam definitely would have been screwed. A shifter, unbound, and a powerful necromancer both on their own turf? They would have been killed embarrassingly fast.

"Now all we gotta do is torch the altar and get the hell outta town," Dean told them, standing up wearily.

Sam shook his head, "Nope, already got the altar handled."

"I was wondering what was taking you so long," Dean admitted, rolling his eyes.

Adam slid off the bed with Lenny, and grabbed at the cut up shirt on the floor. He wrapped Lenny in the cloth and looked to his brothers, as if waiting for instructions. Dean jerked his head towards the door and easily his younger brothers fell into line, walking out before him, Dean following.

Once they all made it down to the garage, Dean plucked his cell out of his pocket and dialed Bobby's number.

"Is the kid okay?" Bobby always got straight to the point, not even a 'hello.'

Dean looked towards Adam who was clutching Lenny to his chest and looking entirely blank and jumpy as usual. He was probably worrying and stressing over having gotten himself kidnapped and generally 'not okay', but physically he was safe and sound, and that's what Bobby was really after.

"He's fine, the wicked witch is dead, oh and Sam and I are okay too, by the way, thanks for askin'," Dean threw in a bit of smart-mouth just because he knew it was expected.

"You boys are fine, I knew you would be, it's the baby that's a wild card these days," Bobby scolded, "did that shifter take her out?"

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, good job keeping an eye on it."

Sam was getting jumpy from not having left, and Adam was more and more giving the impression that he'd misplaced his shattered mind. Dean asked Bobby where he was and discovered he was already back at the motel, having taken a cab a little while after the shifter had 'gotten away' as he was putting it, before hanging up and handing out orders.

"Sam, you take the kid and pup back to the motel in Bobby's car, wouldja? I wanna have some time with my baby, ya know, since she's been defiled by that bitch and all-"

"Yeah whatever, Dean," Sam rolled his eyes, "c'mon Adam."

The garage door opened slowly and Sam was all too eager to escape, as he ducked under it, nearly bending himself in half. Adam followed, glancing nervously at Dean, Lenny yipping impatiently in his arms. As soon as Dean made sure his little brothers were safely tucked away into Bobby's old junker car and driving off down the road, he fell into the driver's seat of the impala.

Dean had really intended to send Sam back to the motel with Bobby's car, and taken Adam with him in the impala. If there was one thing he was finally starting to learn about that kid, was that if you acted fast, and resolved the problem before it had time to stew and fester, then you had at least some hope of fixing it. Once it was left alone too long, then Adam would be far too set in his thoughts and it'd be a lost cause. But Dean could tell that Sam was getting jealous of all the sharing and caring that he'd been doing with their brother, and he wanted to cut it off before it got out of hand. He'd always been able to read Sam like an open book. The way he was brooding was angry, not sullen.

Dean pulled out of the garage, leaving it open as he tore down the road and out of the neighborhood. He'd just have to find another way to corner Adam and make him talk.