Seeing Double

Chapter Fourteen

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As soon as Alec left the bedroom, Dean's feet hit the floor. It was almost a relief that the night was officially over after hours of listening to the transgenic's restless twitching. Not that he'd have slept much anyway. Dad in hell, Alec in the wrong universe, Sam having visions and maybe about to go dark-side... Dean's head felt as though it was about to explode; one more thing and he would surely give himself an aneurism.

"Is Alec okay?" Sam rolled to face him, bed-hair and tired eyes suggesting he hadn't had much sleep either.

Dean wondered why he was supposed to know if Alec was okay. Maybe it was just because he was Sam's big brother and therefore the supposed expert on that sort of thing. Sam, despite being a highly intelligent and self-sufficient man in his own right, occasionally still automatically deferred to Dean over little things. Apparently this was one of those times.

"I dunno," he said, not feeling particularly intelligent himself at that moment in time. At least the question had been 'is Alec okay' rather than 'are you okay', because this morning maybe, just maybe, he'd have choked on the expected 'I'm fine' and come out with something stupid like 'no, I'm not fucking okay', and then everything would have been fubar.

Dean settled for a simple statement. "I'll go check on him." He finished tightening his laces and left the room rapidly, leaving behind the sound of Sam yawning and muttering something about putting on some coffee.

The cold pressed against him as soon as he stepped outside, biting into his exposed flesh and striking through his clothing. He cursed under his breath, expressing his opinion about clones who liked to wander around outside in sub-zero temperatures at dawn and younger brothers who were still in bed.

He headed after Alec, following the boot prints in the thick fur of frost. He'd only taken a few steps when he heard a sound that was half yelp, half gasp. The shock and pain in the cry had Dean running immediately. He rounded the corner of the house to find Alec trying to straighten up.

"Alec? Dude, are you okay?"

The younger man's features were grey with pain, but despite that his expression mirrored Dean's own when he was trying against all odds for the classic 'I'm fine.' The words were cut off before they ever broke from his lips; Alec's expression crumpled as he jack-knifed forwards, clutching at his abdomen.

Dean caught his shoulders as he came upright again, registering a look of near terror in the youthful face before another spasm tore Alec out of his grasp. Alec arched back, snapped forwards into Dean and collapsed, smacking his face into a metal car panel on the way down, despite Dean's desperate attempt to stop his fall.

"Sammy! Sam!" roared Dean. "Bobby, get out here!"

He dropped to his knees, trying to protect Alec's head from further damage as the transgenic seized, arching up off the floor in a violent spasm of locking, twisting muscles. A whimper forced its way through his bared teeth.

"Crap," whispered Dean; from the expression on Alec's face the pain was excruciating. He murmured words of reassurance, not sure his voice was even heard.

Alec tried to say something; his eyes fixing on Dean's for a second before they rolled upwards as he passed out. A half-dressed Sam skidded to his knees beside them, Bobby right behind, his boots unlaced and a wild look on his face. In a distracted way Dean noted he was wearing pyjamas under his hunting jacket.

"Seizure." Dean said, his voice gruff in the icy air. "Let's get him inside while he's out of it."

They laid Alec down on the old couch. Bobby swept aside a pile of books and escaped stuffing to make room for the long legs that were shifting restlessly as Alec began to stir.

"Hey?" Sam's voice was gentle. He wiped away the blood dripping down Alec's cheek. The metal panel had made a nasty looking gash but it didn't seem to be too deep; with the transgenic's accelerated healing capabilities it probably wouldn't need stitching.

Alec's eyes opened slowly; he looked around, an embarrassed flush painting his pale cheeks when he realised they were all watching him.

"Well, that was fun," he said in a ragged whisper. His bottom lip trembled, causing his attempt to smirk to fail miserably.

"Alec." Dean's voice pulled the glassy gaze in his direction. "You had some sorta seizure. You ever had one before dude?"

"No. Not me. X5s..." He shuddered, swallowed, trying to talk through chattering teeth. "X5s h... have a serotonin imbalance. We... we Uh.." Another spasm pulled him sideways; he ground his cheek into the couch.

Bobby laid a hand on his shoulder. "Try an' relax when they hit kiddo; it'll help." He stooped down, waiting until the cramps eased. "That's it, nice an' easy does it." He put a hand on Alec's cheek, tapping it gently to get his attention. "Do y'take any meds?"

"No." Alec coughed, trying to clear the hoarseness from his voice. "Manticore put sup... supplements, with our food."

Sam leaned in. "And since Manticore? Do you take anything now?"

"No. Been okay, just... milk. Milk helps. Max used to take Tryptophan, but they fixed her." Alec's head dropped back; he looked exhausted.

"Tryptophan." Sam was already flipping open his laptop. He continued in an undertone. "Why do I know something about that?"

"No milk." Dean's voice came from the doorway. He shook the empty carton to emphasise his point.

Bobby checked his watch. "Gas station sells it but they ain't open yet. Hammer on the door and tell 'em Bobby Singer sent ya. They'll let y'have some." Dean's boots thundered out of the house; the Impala left a stripe of rubber behind as she hit the blacktop outside Bobby's gate.

"Bobby," Sam hissed. He pointed at the screen of the laptop. "Tryptophan might be difficult. Looks like the FDA lifted its import ban in 2005, but there's no guarantee that supplies available to consumers aren't contaminated."

Bobby scratched his head, frowning. "Leave it with me, I've got a contact. Clone boy here's got enough problems without us buyin' somethin' that'll poison him too."

Alec had begun to move around uneasily. Bobby moved to sit next to him, feeling an unwanted knot in his stomach at the scared look that Alec was unable to keep hidden. The youngster was so much like Dean it was uncanny and seeing one of the boys hurt always made him feel physically sick. "You okay there, kiddo?"

"It's comin' b...back." Alec went even paler as the next shock hit. His head slammed backwards into the couch repeatedly as vicious, rhythmic spasms tore at him.

"Aww kid." Bobby looked at him with genuine pity. As the seizure eased off he dabbed away the line of drool leaking down Alec's chin with an oily rag from his pocket, then carefully swiped his cuff over the sweat beaded forehead. The transgenic lay still, panting, his green eyes dull beneath his drooping eyelashes. Bobby settled more comfortably on the edge of the couch, keeping a hand reassuringly on one shoulder; after a while Alec drifted off into a light doze.

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Even shark DNA only keeps you awake so long. By mid-morning Max was feeling the strain. Later she would blame being tired for nearly walking straight into the clutches of Ames White. The alternative, that she was worried enough by Alec's disappearance to be seriously distracted, was ridiculous.

If it hadn't been for her enhanced sense of smell, she would have been taken. Fortunately a stray trickle of air seeping around the street stall brought her a scent to her nostrils that jerked her out of her thoughts and into the present with a shock. White. Much too close.

Max reacted immediately, actually feeling White's fingers graze her sleeve as she threw her leg over her bike and pedalled furiously into the crowd. A hum of swearing rose behind her as she forced herself through the throng.

Running footsteps behind gave way to the noise of a car door slamming and the roar of an engine. She swerved, dodged, almost fell but regained her balance with cat-like ease.

She took a short cut through a narrow alley, barely wide enough for her bike to fit through. The sector police were ahead, grim faced behind their barrier. Max swerved past the queuing vehicles, unzipped her jacket to show her cleavage to maximum advantage, plastered on her widest smile and flashed her sector pass at the nearest policeman. He made a cursory inspection of her pass, took a long stare at her cleavage and raised the barrier. She was underneath it and away while it was still rising.

Three swift turns later and she was in the maze of passageways leading alongside the wire fence separating one sector from another. She approached the fence cautiously, glad that her Jam Pony bag had lost its logo.

White's sleek black car was on the other side of the wire, snarled up in the traffic waiting to get through the barrier. He got out of the car, glancing up at a nearby hovering drone, before staring at her through the wire.

"452."

Max scowled at him. He wasn't going to jump the wire with the drone overhead.

White grinned, pulling his lips back from his square, white teeth. "Next time, 452. I'm going to get you; then I'm going to get your mouthy friend 494 and I'm gonna make you both wish you'd never been cooked up in that petri dish."

Max's stomach churned. She managed a sneer at White, flipped him the finger and rode off with her heart thumping. White didn't have Alec, that was good, but where was he? She'd already checked his apartment and nothing was missing so it was unlikely he'd left town for a few days. She was starting to fear the worst. A nagging thought was making its way to the surface. Did the big X5 suffer seizures; he'd never mentioned them. There'd been no sign of tryptophan in his apartment or locker. Had he seized in the alleyway and just crawled off to die somewhere?

Max turned into the Jam Pony entrance, dashing quickly at her eyes. He was a pain in the ass, but the thought that the glinting green eyes and cocky smirk might be gone was surprisingly painful. It was far too quiet without his snarky comments.

.

Alec raised his head, a dazed look on his face, when Dean burst back into the room and snatched up a whiskey tumbler from Bobby's desk. A generous glassful of milk was pushed under his nose at the same time as a steady hand supported his neck. Grateful, Alec drank, managing almost two full glasses before subsiding with a groan.

"'M tired," he muttered, shivering.

Dean pulled a blanket over him and palmed his forehead. "Get some rest, I'm gonna be right here."

Bobby's brusque tones carried in through the open door. "Yeah I figure that'll do the trick. I'll come m'self. Be there in 'bout an hour." He stuck his head through the doorway, keys jangling in his hand.

"You boys got this? I'm gonna go get some pure Tryptophan."

.

Sam raised his head from the laptop. "I don't get this… everything I can find says taking Tryptophan in excess can lead to higher levels of serotonin; Alec says X5s have a serotonin imbalance, right? But too much serotonin causes seizures?"

Dean frowned. "Let's not go all geek on this stuff, okay? If Alec says he needs Tryptophan, we'll get him Tryptophan."

Alec answered without opening his eyes. His voice was shaky and weak. "Our genetic modifications are kinda extreme. Manticore made us pop supplements every morning and one of 'em was Tryptophan." He sighed. "I made it my business to know what the supplements were… I had a few things working on the side, selling 'em to the guards. Max took it to control her seizures, before Manticore fixed her. We're all meant to be fixed, but some X5s get an imbalance anyway." The speech seemed to exhaust him and he curled in on himself.

Sam pushed gently, needing more information. "How did Manticore treat them, if they seized?"

"Big dose of Tryptophan."

"And then, if that didn't work?" It was better to know the worst case scenario now, Sam thought, while Alec was able to talk.

Alec pushed his face further into the ripped cushion. His tone was dull. "Terminated; they were terminated."

"Sonofabitch! I hate those freaks. What kinda people…" Dean's face was tight in the cold light from the window. "I'd like to pay 'em a visit!"

Sam shut his laptop and made his way over to Alec. "Bobby should be on the way back," he said reassuringly. He noticed that Alec's cheeks were flushed red, contrasting sharply with his pale face. When Dean looked like that it was usually the sign of a fever. He laid a cool palm onto Alec's forehead; the skin was furnace hot. "You're running quite a fever there, dude. Hey Dean, has Bobby got any clean cloths around?"

Dean hunted through Bobby's pile of clean laundry, which was balanced precariously on one of the kitchen surfaces. He returned with a wet cloth and a bowl of cold water. Sam wrung out the cloth and laid it on the burning forehead. Tired eyes opened briefly and shut again.

"I'm freezin'." Alec shuddered.

"You're burning up; it's the seizures making you feel cold. We just need to lower your temperature a bit."

Sam could feel Dean close behind him, hovering anxiously. He looked over his shoulder. His brother looked exhausted, deep shadows around his eyes, stubble pencilled dark against the pale skin over his lips and along his jaw.

"Dean, did you sleep at all last night man?" There was no answer. "Hey, how about you make us some coffee, I could use a cup."

"Yeah." Dean dragged his fingers and thumb along his jaw, the dry rasping sound audible in the silent room. "Coffee." He retreated to the kitchen.

Sam had just re-dipped the cloth when Alec made a little hissing noise. He grasped at his thigh, raising himself to a sitting position.

"Not again." There was despair in his words.

"Could you use some more milk?" Sam glanced at the half-full carton.

"Nah…" Alec's breaths were speeding up as his lips thinned out in a grimace. "It'll make me puke." He panted harder, once, twice, grabbed at Sam's shirt and seized.

"Shit, Alec!" Sam could hear the transgenic's teeth grating as the stitches on his shirt gave way. It was a good thing Alec hadn't taken hold of his wrist.

Sam was pushing up to his feet, ready to stop Alec rolling off the couch, when his own head was taken in a vice-like grip. At first he thought it was Alec, but then a familiar pain lanced through his skull. He dropped onto his knees on the carpet, gripping at his head as though he was trying to drive his fingers through bone and into brain. Not now, not now, he thought, but the vision sucked him in.

.

Bobby heard Dean shouting for him as soon as he opened the car door. He got into the house as fast as his legs would carry him.

"A little help here, Bobby!"

"Bullcrap!" Bobby pulled up short, not sure what to deal with first.

Dean looked up at him with an expression of desperation; he was sitting on the floor with his back against a stack of books. Alec lay on the floor on one side of him, his head cushioned on Dean's thigh. He was shaking, tremors wracking his body. Dean had a hand on his head, running his fingers soothingly through the sweat soaked hair. Dean's other arm was clasping Sam tight against his side. Sam had his knees drawn up to his chest and was holding his head.

"What the hell is goin' on?"

"Sam got a vision." Dean lowered his head to Sam's, lips brushing against his brother's shaggy hair. "Okay there Sammy. I gotcha." He looked back to Bobby. "Get some meds into Alec, he's not gonna last much longer like this."

Bobby snatched up the milk carton and pushed to Alec's side. He eased him up into a sitting position, taking in the tear tracks on the grey pallor of his face and the way his fingers were clutching at Dean's shirt. Alec had long since given up all pretence of being okay.

"Make it st… stop… p…please."

"Open your mouth, kiddo." Bobby dropped a pill at the back of Alec's tongue and held the milk to his shaking mouth. Alec swallowed, choked, coughed, but eventually the pill went down. Bobby repeated the procedure twice more, then rolled Alec down onto his side, propping him up with a couple of cushions. He dragged the blanket off the couch and tucked it round his shuddering body, praying that the meds were right. He didn't think Alec could take much more.

"Hang in there boy. We gotcha; y'gonna feel better soon."

Bobby turned his attention to Sam. He was sipping water from a bottle as Dean rubbed his back soothingly. Sam looked wrecked; he tried to speak to Bobby, but he cut him off. "Tell me later kiddo. Get y'self together first." He dropped another blanket around Sam's shoulders.

"Okay." Sam's breath puffed out; he leant back against the stack of books, clearly worn out.

"That was about as fun as getting kicked in the jewels." Dean's voice cracked as he stood up. Bobby swung to face him, took one look at his face and the way he was swaying and nudged him backwards into an armchair.

"Balls! Put your ass on that chair; I don't want all three of you layin' on the carpet." He grabbed hold of Dean's jaw, turning his face upwards. "Ya look like shit, y'silly son of a bitch! Have y'slept at all lately?"

"What? Yeah… I've slept! Lemme up. Sam, Alec…" The words were slow, too slow.

"Shut up y'idjit! Sit down!" Bobby scowled at him, not liking the grey cast to his features. He wagged a finger in a threatening manner. "You're playin' wounded and later you an' me are gonna talk."

Dean made a move to get up. Bobby laid a hand firmly against his chest. "Y'move, I'm gonna kick y'stupid ass!"

Dean subsided. For a fleeting second Bobby thought he looked almost grateful.

.

Well I managed to whump almost everybody this time!

Thanks so much for reading and to my reviewers; I love to hear from you. : )

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