Disclaimer- Supernatural and all its characters belong to the CW and Kripke.
Previously on Supernatural- "The boys!" John and Bobby hollered at the same time. Both men started running down the street to the diner. "Radio your men and tell them not to let anyone in that car!" John yelled to Officer Pulliam as he continued to run. He had a family to save; again.
Mrs. Pool anxiously paced the parking lot of the diner. The two policemen she had flagged down had searched inside and under every car in the lot without finding any trace of her son or his friends. She watched as they extended their search to include the area around the diner. She was close; she could feel it. He couldn't have gotten far in the small amount of time she had been away from the car. She was going to bring him home this time. She knew her time was running out. She needed to find him and leave before that Winchester fellow could come and take him away again. Hearing a shout, Mrs. Pool glanced down the street to see three men racing towards her and they did not look happy.
Officer Pulliam groaned when he saw who was standing beside the impala. "Great! Just what I needed. More trouble." he thought as he doubled his pace. Shouting at his officers to meet him at the car, he quickly ran up to it making a point to put himself between Mrs. Pool and Mr. Winchester. "What do you think you're doing here? I told you to wait at the station." he yelled glaring at Mrs. Pool.
"I am not one of your men, Officer Pulliam. You can't just order me around. I have every right to be here." Mrs. Pool told the officer. "My son is here and I'm not leaving until I have him."
"Son? What's she talking about, Officer?" John asked while looking around the impala for any sign of the boys.
"I was going to wait until we had the boys to spring this on you but since she let the cat out of the bag, I guess I'll tell you now. This lady, Mrs. Pool seems to think that Sammy is her son Joey who was kidnapped when he was three." the officer explained. Noticing the anger on the men's faces he motioned one of the other officers over. He whispered instructions to the other man before speaking to Mrs. Pool. "I want you to go into the diner with Officer Pete." Seeing her about to object he quickly added, "You can go sit in the diner with the officer or he can cuff you and put you in the back of his patrol car, you choice." Waiting until the two had made it into the diner, Officer Pulliam then turned back to John and Bobby. "Let's concentrate on finding the boys. We can deal with the rest later. Any idea where the boys would go to hide?" he asked.
John couldn't believe what he was hearing! This woman was trying to claim his baby boy as her son. There was no way this "lady" was getting her hands on his boy! He took a deep breath to calm himself as he watched Mrs. Pool being led into the diner. Once she was out of sight he was able to regain control of himself and his thoughts. Focusing back on job at hand John took a long hard look at the impala. Moments later he nudged Bobby pointing at something in the floorboard in the back.
"Well I'll be" Bobby said staring at the empty McDonald's cup lying in the floorboard with its straw pointing toward the back seat. "That's one smart boy you've got there, Johnny!"
Seeing Officer Pulliam's confused expression, John nodded to the empty cup as he unlocked the front door of the car. "The boys have been in the car the whole time. That cup and straw are Dean's way of communicating their location to me and me only." John sat down in the driver's seat and called out, "Dean, Bobby and I are here. It's safe to come out now, sport."
Officer Pulliam watched in amazement as the back seat was knocked over and the little boys crawled out of the trunk one by one. "Mr. Winchester, have you ever considered becoming a police officer?" he offered. "None of my men would have ever picked up on that clue."
John laughed as he hugged all his boys. "I can't take credit for that one. The cup was all Dean's idea." he bragged. "Guess we need to call Christian and Nolan's dad and tell them where we are." he mentioned as he pulled out his phone.
Officer Pulliam and Dean talked about his "cup clue" while John called the other boys' fathers. He was so wrapped up in the conversation that he never noticed Mrs. Pool rushing toward them until he heard Sammy cry out. Turning he saw Mrs. Pool heading to her vehicle dragging a struggling Sam by his wrist. He started toward the pair with Dean and Bobby hot on his heels.
Sammy fought with everything he had to get out of this crazy lady's grasp but her grip never even loosened. Knowing he had to get out of her clutches before she made it to her car, he did the only other thing he could think of; he bit her hand. As soon as he felt her start to let go, he kicked out connecting with her knee. He then turned and ran away from her not stopping until he was safe in Bobby's arms. Sammy wrapped both arms around his uncle's neck and held on for dear life. He was not going to chance anyone snatching him again. "I wanna go home, Uncle Bobby! Please, take me home!" he begged as clung to his protector.
Officer Pulliam dashed past Bobby and the boys coming to a halt in front of Mrs. Pool blocking her from the family's sight. "Stop right there, Mrs. Pool." he commanded as he grabbed her by the shoulders to prevent her from getting to the little boy. "Mr. Winchester's going to come over here in a minute and then we'll straighten everything out. But you are not going to go over there and upset those children again!"
Mrs. Pool twisted and turned attempting to break the officer's grip but he was just too strong. Knowing she couldn't get free and get to her son just made her angrier. "There's nothing to straighten out! That is my son Joey in that redneck's arms! I demand that you bring me my son and arrest the man that's pretending to be his father!" she spat out glaring at the officer. She made another attempt to get free when she saw John walking her way. Failing she settled for turning her death glare on the two men who had taken her baby away from her.
Bobby took Sammy back to the impala whispering to him the whole time. At the car he nodded at Mr. Sims and Mr. Mathews before carefully handing Sam to Dean. "Dean, I want you to take your brother and get into the car. Stay there until me or your dad comes to get you. No one else. Got it?" he asked.
"Yes sir" Dean answered as he climbed into the impala with his brother. He locked the door as soon as Bobby shut it and then focused all his attention on comforting Sammy.
"Don't worry about them. We'll be right here standing guard while you're gone." Ray told Bobby as he and Gary took up positions on either side of the car. "Go take care of that witch. We'll make sure nothing else happens to the boys." After thanking the men, Bobby walked towards John and the officer to find out what the hell that lady's problem was.
John slowly walked up to Officer Pulliam and the woman he was struggling with. Observing the look on her face he was tempted to yell, "Cristo!" at her to make sure she wasn't possessed. Making it to the officer's side he calmly asked, "Now what's all this nonsense about Sammy being her son? Does she have any kind of proof or are you going by her word?"
"Joey! His name is Joey, not Sammy! Not that you don't already know that seeing as how you took him from me!" Mrs. Pool shouted. "But if you need proof. Fine! How do you explain this?" she gloated tossing a faded picture at John.
John glanced at the picture before handing it to Bobby. He couldn't deny that the boy in the photo looked exactly like Sammy but he also knew it wasn't Sammy. He was just about to tell her that when Bobby spoke up.
"Hey, Kojak! Did you even bother to look at the back of this photo?" he questioned. "Guess not, or we wouldn't be talking right now." he added as he held the picture up for the others to see. Handwritten on the back were the words- Mama and Joey, December 1982. Bobby waited a few seconds for the information to sink in before he said, "Last time I checked Sammy was five not eight."
Officer Pulliam stared out the handwritten words. How could he have missed such an obvious clue? He was usually on top of things. "Time for a vacation." he thought. Glancing at Mrs. Pool he couldn't help but feel sorry for the woman. He had two small children at home and he couldn't imagine what it would be like to have one of them missing. And then to see another child years later that's a dead ringer for her missing son. No wonder the woman was a little off. He'd probably be in a nut house. Putting those thoughts aside, he carefully schooled his expression and spoke. "Mrs. Pool, I'm afraid he's right. Sammy does look like Joey but he can't be your son. He's too young. I'm sorry if all this has brought up bad memories for you. If you'd like someone to talk to, I can arrange to have one of our counselors come out to see you." Seeing Mrs. Pool shake her head, he continued, "Alright. But if you change you mind, just call the station. One of my officers will take you home now."
Mrs. Pool stood and listened to Officer Pulliam's words growing more furious by the second. "It's a conspiracy!" she thought as she shook her head. "The police are in it with the Winchesters. They're sending my baby home with that man and covering the whole thing up!" Knowing she wouldn't get anywhere with the officer, she refused to let anyone take her home. Stating that she was perfectly capable of driving herself, she walked to the car and left. Ideas flew through her mind on the drive home. She needed to find out where the Winchesters were staying, where Joey went to school, and what their routine was. If the police wouldn't help, she'd just have to take her son back on her own. Mrs. Pool pulled in the driveway and hurried into her house. She had a lot of work to do.
AN- The boys hiding in the trunk came from my brother. He's the one that told me you could get to the trunk through the back seat.