It Runs In The Family
Author: Cheryl W.
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or any rights to Dark Angel or Supernatural, nor am I making any profit from this story.
Summary: Crossover with Dark Angel and Supernatural –AU. Dean, Sam and Alec's continuing adventures. No slash.
Author's Notes: As you've probably noticed, I didn't get this story finished yet, not in December for Christmas, not in January for the 'ah you just missed Christmas' and now here in February. So, I hope you can forgive me for the Christmas references in the story, because, as I've mentioned before, this storyline was supposed to happen near that time of year.
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Chapter 21 – What Matters Most – part 13
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Stalking back to Sam, Alec growled out a string of profanities even as he pulled out his phone, dialed Dean's number, angrily clicked it off as it went to voicemail. "When we catch up to him, I'm going to kill him myself," he furiously vowed aloud, kept silent what would come before that action. 'Right after I'm done making sure there's not a scratch on the dumb, self sacrificing jerk.'
Sam wasn't prepared for Alec to plow into him the next second, to slam him against the subway's far wall. But before he could ask if Alec had forgotten which big brother he was furious with, he saw what Alec had: three Manticore soldiers.
Having caught sight of the soldiers, Alec instantly sought the shadows for himself and Sam. Immobile, he watched as the cop pulled his gun on the soldiers as they descended the stairs, told them to freeze. But they didn't freeze, at all. Instead, the two men flanking the soldier in the lead leaped down the remaining three stairs and quickly and deftly disarmed and knocked out the cop. There would be no more help from that quarter.
Pressing Sam against the wall, hoping that the small throng of people waiting for the train would conceal them, Alec kept his eyes trained on the soldiers, would engage them the instant he knew they were discovered, would protect Sam with his life. But the soldiers only gave a random visual scan of the gathered commuters, were instead focused on an electronic device the leader of their three man unit held.
Straining his enhanced hearing, Alec easedropped on their conversation, felt his heart drop as the implications became clear.
Gathering his energy to attack or to flee, Sam watched the men, saw, as Alec had, that their attention was drawn, not to their surroundings anymore, but to whatever information was being shown on the electronic device in the soldier's hand. Then, in synch, the soldiers raised their heads, not to his and Alec's location but to look down the tracks in the direction Dean and Lydecker had sped. The one soldier stalked to a subway map, pointed out something on the plastic display and then the Manticore soldiers just left.
It should have been good news, a victory: Dean escaping Manticore's clutches, them not thinking that he and Alec were left behind. But Sam knew in his gut that it wasn't good news, was just the opposite.
"They're tracking Dean," Alec stated, a jump to his clenched jaw.
"Ah, yeah, noticed that back at the house," Sam drawled. He wished that Alec would step back, give him some breathing room. After all, the danger had passed for them and besides that, he didn't need his little brother thinking what Dean did, that he needed protecting.
But when Alec's eyes met his, he knew that his brother was still on high alert. "No, I mean, they have a tracker on Dean."
It wasn't a welcome thought. "Or on Lydecker," Sam said dangerously. "If he double crossed us…"
"If he has, Dean's put himself right in their hands," anger building in Alec's words as he stepped back, freed Sam from his protection. "Us splitting up, what a colossal stupid thing to do!" he railed, running his hand through his hair. Turning his back to Sam, he looked down the tunnel that his brother had disappeared through. And he expected to hear Sam's agreement with him, counted on it. When it didn't come, he slowly turned around to face his brother. "What? Don't you think so?" accusation and incredulousness dripping in the inquiry.
"Course," Sam agreed distractedly, his eyes skittering away from Alec's.
"But?" Alec pressed, coming back to stand inches from Sam.
Knowing that his opinion wasn't going to be popular, Sam inhaled and then met Alec's blazing green eyes. "Splitting up, it let us prove that they were tracking either Dean or Lydecker. And it kept us…" Sam didn't want to verbalize the rest. It was so Dean, the part of Dean that made him so furious most of his life.
"Kept us what?" Alec demanded, felt like he was pulling teeth getting Sam to talk to him, to let him know what he was thinking.
"Safe," Sam couldn't hold back the bitterness that resonated in the one word. For Dean, that was the end game, to keep his family safe. And there wasn't anything, anything he wouldn't do to achieve that. Even if it meant sentencing himself to Hell…or ditching his little brothers in a city subway station when a whole army was after him.
Alec didn't reply, couldn't. Because he didn't want to redirect his anger to Sam, to someone who had been left behind as much as he had. Instead he redialed Dean's number and redialed it and redialed it. On the fifth try he broke down and left a message. "Dean, Manticore has a tracker on you or Lydecker. I think they know which subway line you took so watch your butt when you hop off that train." he hurriedly supplied, needed Dean to watch his own back until he was there to do it for him. Then, adopting his trademark carefree tone, he tagged on, "And, of yeah, there's one more thing…if you don't call me back in five minutes, what I'll do to you will make your days with Manticore look like a spa retreat, OK?" Then he viciously stabbed his finger onto the phone's screen to end the call.
Worried that if they jumped on a subway it might just take them farther away from whatever rendezvous point Dean would suggest, Alec decided, "I say we take this topside."
Sam, amid his swirling apprehension, couldn't hold back a smirk."Like a spa retreat, huh?" he goaded, saw Alec do a little embarrassed shrug before grabbing him by the elbow and tugging him to the exit.
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"They are definitely tracking you or me," Dean snarled, pinning Lydecker to the Subway wall. "You better hope to God it's me," he darkly hissed, the deadly gleam in his eyes promising imaginable retribution if Lydecker had betrayed them, was even, unwittingly, being used as a pawn to get to them.
"I didn't think it would work," Lydecker wheezed out under the crushing pressure of Dean's forearm on his larynx.
Pressing harder against Lydecker's throat, Dean demanded, "Didn't think what would work?"
Meeting Dean's eyes, Lydecker revealed, "The tracker they put in your blood stream."
Cursing, Dean shoved away from Lydecker and ran his hand over his mouth. Course it couldn't be something he could get to, something in his clothing or just implanted under his skin. Singeing Lydecker with his gaze, he gruffly said, "And you only now thought to…I don't know, telling me I'm a walking G.P.S. signal."
Not willing to entertain the entire subway with their talk of secret genetic research, Lydecker stepped closer to Dean and dropped his voice to a low murmur. "Like I said, I didn't think it would work on you." At Dean's raised eyebrow expression of 'yeah, keep going' he closed in more space between him and Dean, made sure his words didn't carry farther than Winchester. "After the breach in their Seattle instillation, Manticore devised a tracker for all of it's transgenics. It was injected into their blood stream but it would only begin working after it integrated with the transgenic's mutated red blood cells." When Dean's brow furrowed, Lydecker knew the other man was starting to put the pieces together. He saved him the trouble. "It wouldn't work on a normal human and I didn't think …"
"That there was enough of Alec's blood still in my system to latch onto," Dean finished, frustration evident in the flash of his eyes, in the slump of his shoulders. He didn't wait for Lydecker's confirmation, didn't have to. Of course Manticore would find a way to screw him by using Alec's blood, by turning his little brother's devotion to him against him, against them all. With blood. Ironic didn't cover how that hit him in the gut. Not one to wallow in despair at a few setbacks, Dean turned to the expert he had at his disposal. "Ok, so it's in my blood,"' because his blood was Alec's as much as Alec's was his, as much as Sam's was theirs. "Ok, so how do I turn this beacon thing off? Take a good hit off a defibrillator; lose a few pints of blood? What?" He couldn't believe he was talking about deliberately losing blood after Alec had graciously donated his blood to keep him alive.
Lydecker's grim expression was answer enough.
"Well there's got to be something I can do to turn this thing.." he waved his hand down the length of his body, "off."
"It was designed to track transgenics that escaped. Do you think Manticore wanted them to have a way to turn it off?" Lydecker caustically returned, frustrated that Winchester was asking him for the impossible.
Sinking into a seat, Dean watched as another subway train flew by them in the tunnel, couldn't believe that they had come this far only to fail. It made his decision to leave Sam and Alec easier. Manticore may be dialed into his location but they were never getting their hands on his brothers again. That was a promise he was going to keep.
'How? When you know what Sam will do if Manticore takes you back? What Alec will do? They wouldn't leave you there and you know it. They will devise some stupid kamikaze stunt to try and rescue you and get themselves killed in the process. No, you need to rescue you so they don't have to.' Reaching out, Dean grabbed Lydecker's wrist and yanked the man into the seat beside him. "Fine. So does this tracker have a shelf life?"
Lydecker's features brightened. "Manticore was confident they would easily track down the transgenic by three months."
"Wow. Just three months with an army hot on my trail. Awesome," Dean bitterly drawled, mind swirling with the probability of outrunning Manticore's GI Joe squads today, let alone for eighty-nine more days.
But Lydecker's was doing his own calculations. "But it wouldn't be that long for you, not since its only bonding with remnants of Alec's DNA."
"So how long? Your best guess," Dean asked, felt like he was holding his breath, torn between hope and despair.
Not sure if he was really delivering good news, Lydecker supplied, "It could be just a couple weeks…or it could be a month."
Slowly a wolfish smile pulled onto Dean's lips. He had alluded the FBI way longer than that. 'Except for the part where you put yourself in prison right where Hendrickson could find you,' a voice that sounded like Sam taunted in his head. And then there was the time Bella dropped the dime on them, told Hendrickson right where they were. 'And Manticore will knowwhere you are every second of every day' came a thought that dripped with Alec's smart aleckness.
Shaking his head, trying to dislodge his killjoy thoughts, Dean latched onto the slim hope that he could do his version of the Cannonball Run, could keep one foot ahead of the commandoes on his tail. "Why didn't you say so. Keep on the run for a couple days, even a month, I can do that. I've practically been on the run my whole life."
But Lydecker wasn't reassured by Dean's brazen statement. Grabbing Dean's shoulders, he gave the younger man a shake. "We are not talking about being hunted by some local town sheriff or even the FBI who's willing to assign two agents to your case. Manticore's resources are extensive."
"Yeah, I figured that out when I won their vacation package to a torture center nearest me. And, oh yeah, I think I counted a few more than two at our reunion at the house," Dean sarcastically wisecracked, hated when someone thought he was an idiot, or naïve or both.
Unruffled by Dean's caustic tone, Lydecker spat, "Try thirty."
"And how many are still left, huh? I think only enough for an all-hands-on-deck hockey team," Dean returned, knew that, between him and his brothers and Lydecker, they had decimated Manticore's forces. He felt pride swell at what they had accomplished, hoped Boris got the message loud and clear.
Lydecker dropped his hold on Dean, leaned back in the seat, an air of defeat falling on him. "Boris will send more. Manticore isn't known for cutting its losses, just ask Alec."
"Are we talking transgenics? Mini me?" Dean asked, hoped the tinge of fear didn't carry in his tone. He wasn't chewing at the bit to go another round with 492. And he didn't want Alec to face off with his evil twin either. Because, if there was one thing Dean knew, it was darkness and 492 had it in spades, making the transgenic a more deadly foe than White could have ever strived to be.
"No," Lydecker firmly replied. "Boris would need a special requisite to use trangenics and he wouldn't get it."
"He got it before," Dean challenged, wasn't likely to forget the memory of 492 walking into his motel room and promptly garroting him.
"Boris was able to use 492 because he insisted that he was invaluable to the success of his experiment, that you had to think he was 494, that you would only be compliant if you believed you were helping Alec. In my opinion, Boris wanted to know if 492 would follow his directive to not kill you."
"I'm alive…but that's nothing he did wrong," Dean muttered, absently rubbing the bandage on his neck. "So Boris, he's not the big man on the Manticore campus?"
Not sure where Dean was headed, Lydecker slowly answered. "No, he's just a cog in the wheel."
"So he has to go through channels, obtain someone's approval to unleash the armies of Middle Earth."
Not bothering to try and understand Dean's weird reference, Lydecker clarified, "He has a number of men at his disposal. But once they are deployed, he would have to get approval from the committee to get reinforcements."
"And would they give him the go ahead?" Dean pressed, eyes meeting Lydecker's.
Stunned at the question even as he was impressed that Dean had the foresight to ask it, Lydecker contemplated his reply, took into account all he knew of Manticore's procedures, of the committee members aversion for the Manticore name bandied about in headlines, of their divided support of Boris's experiment. "No," he answered in surprise but with utter conviction. No, Manticore would only back Boris' play so far before writing off his failed experiment…and him. "If Boris doesn't get you back, if he can't prove his experiment works, they will shut his project down."
"I like the sound of that," Dean drawled, a beaming smile emerging on his lips at the thought of Boris' experiment going up in flames, of Boris panhandling on some street corner. "So, how many of Boris' lackeys can I expect to drop in on me over the next month?"
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Alec dodged into an alley when his phone rang. Yanking Sam in with him, he held the phone between them before he answered, spoke at the same time his caller did.
"They're tracking you!"
"They're tracking me."
"Great, mystery solved. So tell us where to meet you," Alec replied in his best no nonsense tone.
"No," Dean tersely shot back, knew that he had to shut down Alec's suggestion at the jump.
"Ok, what part of "they are tracking you" did you not understand," Alec heatedly threw back, hand tightening on the cell phone in his grip.
"They are after me, not you guys. I want you two to stay out of harm's way."
Sam nearly gritted his teeth. He had heard that declaration from his brother before. "Dean, come on. I didn't want you to go after Gordon alone, you really think I'll give you the OK to take on a battalion of Manticore thugs on your own."
"Well that's the advantage of being the oldest, I make the decisions…"
Sharply, Alec broke in, reminded, "No, we make the decisions, as a family. And we stick together, no matter what. That's the company line that you've been selling me. Or does that only apply when you want it to?"
Before Dean could refute Alec's words, Sam lambasted him too.
"We're stronger together, that's what you told Dad."
"Alright! Alright," Dean growled. "Stop quoting me to me."
Sensing a victory, Alec demanded, "So where and when?"
Thinking on his feet, Dean spied an advertisement on the ceiling of the subway. "Music Festival on Grant Street in an hour. Meet by the food stands."
"Be careful," Alec ordered.
"My middle name is careful," Dean boasted and then he disconnected the call, left his two brothers huddled in an alleyway listening to the fading echo of his voice.
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Sam breathed a sigh of relief when Alec entered the diner's bathroom. "What took you so long? That one guy was creeping me out."
"What, you almost got a date?" Alec wisecracked as he sat a bag onto the sink rim, began pulling out the bandages and peroxide that he had purchased from the pharmacy next door.
"You're about as funny as Dean," Sam deadpanned. Lifting the papertowel from the gash on his forehead, he scowled in the reflection of the mirror as blood instantly welled again from the wound.
"Oh, I'm funnier," Alec corrected, reaching out and carefully turning Sam to face him. He pressed a peroxide soaked sterile pad against the wound, winced when Sam hissed in pain but didn't relent. "Shirt's a goner, 'less you're going for that grunge look." His eyes skimming down to the blood spattered shirt Sam was wearing.
"Sorry I'm not up to your GQ standards right now," Sam snapped back, felt shamed when Alec reached into his mystery bag and pulled enough of a white shirt out to hover over the bag's lip like a puppet. Sam reached for the shirt but Alec pre-empted him by dropping the shirt and catching his hand.
"Wait to put it on until after you're beautiful again," Alec ordered.
Sam's eyebrows cocked at the compliment.
Certain that Sam was backing down, wasn't showing the stubbornness that Dean would, Alec released his hold on Sam's hand and met his brother's surprised look. "What? You think we should be humble about our looks?" he challenged with a light laugh before he shook his head. He couldn't believe how different Sam was to Dean, to him. But it was a good different.
Sam couldn't fight a smile. "No, never humble. That would be wrong."
"Exactly," Alec agreed with a cocky smile of his own before he refocused his attention on his brother's wound. "This sucker just keeps bleeding."
"I can .." Sam began, raising his hand to replace Alec's hold.
But Alec refuted gently, "Chill. I've got this," as he deftly replaced the soaked red sterile pad with a new white one.
"So, this is life on the run for a transgenic?" Sam conversationally began.
"Fun, isn't it," Alec mocked, felt guilt surge through him. He had never wanted to drag his brothers into his Manticore nightmare but it just seemed to happen, again and again.
Sam chuckled darkly, "Loads. So Max…she escaped Manticore when she was a kid?"
Tracking where Sam's mind was going, that his brother was striving to grasp some glimmer of hope, Alec sighed and met Sam's eyes. "Ten years. She's been running from them for ten years. Course she wasn't LoJacked."
"Is that what Dean is, LoJacked somehow? It's not his clothing, our phones…" Sam began to check off.
"Manticore isn't that impersonal," Alec bleakly cut in, wished that he didn't have examples of just how personal Manticore liked to make things. Afraid that Sam would force him to recount those ways, he said, "I think this is finally letting up." Lifting the pad, he smiled for Sam's benefit, threw the pad away and washed his hands of his brother's blood. Digging again in the bag, he came out proudly with butterfly bandages. With skill, he closed up the wound and stepped back to examine his handiwork.
Before Sam could turn to the mirror, could check out his injury for himself, Alec's fingers were back, this time armed with a wet papertowel, swiping gently at the blood stained skin around his wound. "You're good at this," Sam quietly said, watched as Alec's eyes met his and then flickered away as if the words were an insult instead of a compliment. "You and Dean, you both put on this gruff show but you're two of the gentlest people I know."
"Gentle? I used to kill people for a living Sam?" Alec bitingly countered, focusing on the persistent blood marring his brother's skin.
"Dean would say so does he," Sam voiced softly, a tinge of hatred for the necessity of what Dean had to do, what they had to do.
"Mine weren't all monsters USA," Alec contemptuously shot back, angry that Sam thought to group his actions in with theirs, that Sam thought to whitewash the innocent blood on his hands.
Not willing to back down, Sam stated with quiet conviction, "Not everything that we kill was always evil…looked evil…"
Alec stilled, but there was tension radiating through him. "Is this the conversation you want to have, now? You want to make me some kind of saint, Sam?"
It was almost like he was talking to Dean, had run into one of Dean's Fort Knox walls. And he had never known how to go on, how to burrow under the wall or jump high enough over it, could only do what he was doing now: lapsing into silence.
When his belligerence shut Sam up as it was meant to, Alec thought he would feel relief, didn't expect to feel like a monster incarnate. Pulling the white t-shirt out of the bag, he held it out to Sam like a white flag of truce. For a moment, Sam didn't move, held his gaze like he was going to say something…and then he gave a small smile signifying that the truce terms had been accepted.
Watching Sam shrug out of his coat and unbutton his shirt, Alec pointed out, "I still need to get one of them" tapping the tattoo on Sam's chest.
"What? A chest to put a medal on?" Sam offered obtusely, threw in a forced chuckle for good measure. His attempts to deflect Alec crashed and burned under his brother's hot glare.
"You know what," Alec insisted darkly. "I think you and Dean facing off with one of my evil twins proves my point for me. Me getting possessed is not a scenario we want to risk." He was carrying enough guilt over the fact that Sam and Dean had left down their guard because they thought it was him trying to kill them in that motel room. He would not put his brothers in that position again, afraid to protect themselves because they refused to hurt him.
Sam pulled on the shirt and hedged, "Alec, we've talked about this…" wishing Dean was there to back him up.
"Yeah, and now it's time to just let me do it," Alec adamantly shot back.
Sam sighed, knew that he had to express Dean's wishes in his brother's absence. "Dean doesn't…"
"Want me marked as hunter. So I've heard," Alec supplied with irritation and disparity. "Thing is, I am a hunter."
"Today, yes but…"
"When you two give up the rocksalt, iron round accessories, then so will I," Alec defiantly declared, pulling to his full height, daring Sam to tell him that he couldn't stand at his and Dean's side.
"It's more than that," Sam said achingly. He knew, better than anyone, what it was like to have choices…and have them taken away from him, to be left with…only one path to travel.
"Like what, Sam? You planning on skipping out on me too?" Alec goaded, voice rising with his indignation.
Sam stilled, forgot to draw in a breath as his eyes met his brother's furious gaze. "You mean like I did, Dean," more a statement than a question, could see the distrust growing in Alec's eyes, distrust of him, of his loyalties. Then Alec turned away from him, busied himself with shoving all their trash in the bag.
Unable to find any justification for his past actions to offer to Alec, Sam returned to the matter at hand. "You already have one bull's-eye on you, Alec." Reaching out to his brother's turned back, he tapped the barcode at the base of his brother's neck lightly with his fingers. "We're not letting you add another," his voice husky and tried but resolute. They would not put Alec in more danger than he already was, that he and Dean agreed upon.
Something eased in Alec at Sam's light touch, at his brother's unearthed logic, at the realization that his brothers' refusal, it wasn't that Sam and Dean thought there would come a day that they would not want him with them. It was just the opposite. He swiveled to face Sam. "It's my choice. And I think the pros far outweigh the cons."
"Dean doesn't," Sam bluntly stated.
"And you?" Alec prodded, could sense that Sam was purposefully toting Dean's slogans instead of his own.
Sam bit his lip and dropped his eyes from Alec's perceptive inspection. Dean didn't know what it felt like to be possessed, to be made to hurt his own brother. He had been trapped inside, had a front row seat to Dean being shot by his own hand. Sam didn't think he would come out sane if he had done something worse to Dean.
Alec's breath caught when Sam looked up, when he saw the ravaged expression in his older brother's eyes, when he heard the hurt in his brother's voice.
"The tattoo, it was my idea. I couldn't…live with that fear hanging over my head."
"That you would get possessed again," Alec clarified even as he questioned.
Nodding, Sam swallowed, forced the words out of his constricted throat, "I didn't want to be used as a weapon against Dean ever again."
A sharp pain speared through Alec. "You mean like my Manticore fraternity did a couple days ago?" bitterness resonating through every word he spoke.
"Alec, that wasn't your fault."
Seeing his opening, Alec forcibly stated, "No, but if I get possessed and I could have prevented it, that will be my fault."
"I know," Sam hoarsely agreed, knew that they were out of other options, that if Alec stayed with them, if they wanted to keep him safe, if they wanted him to trust himself with them, they had to let him in, fully.
"So you'll help plead my case with Dean?" Alec asked with hopefulness, knew that winning Sam over didn't mean Dean would capitulate.
"Ok," Sam sighed, knew the battle that lay ahead but would wage it for Alec, because, they were family and even when they didn't agree, they had to at least accept each other's decisions. "Now can we get out of here before creepy guy comes back?" he grumbled, pointing a hand toward the bathroom door.
"Don't worry, I'll protect you Sammy," Alec joked as he headed for the door, Sam at his heels.
Sam slapped Alec on the back of the head for his comment, but to his irk, it only produced laughter to burst from his genetically enhanced little brother.
Sam and Alec heard the music festival long before they saw the crowds gathered on Grant street, saw the stage and the performer belting out Silent Night like it was a rock song he made popular. Sam followed Alec's lead, was in the wake of his brother's headlong pace, pushing, maneuvering, charming his way through the crowd toward the hot dog wagon in the east section of the taped off section of the street.
'Figures Dean would want to meet us at the food stand,' Sam thought, couldn't help smiling, felt eagerness flood him. Reaching the food vendors, he and Alec stood shoulder to shoulder and scanned the crowd, attempted to lay eyes on Dean. Each second without a Dean sighting felt an eternity, had Sam telling himself that Dean was alright, that his family was soon going to be together again, that Dean, he wasn't like him. His big brother didn't run away from his family, took long drives to cool his temper, stayed out all night with questionable companions, but he always came home, always returned to him, never left him. It just wasn't in Dean to abandon his family.
"Lydecker," Alec announced as he spied the commander's approach, eyes tracking the perimeter around the man, searching for Dean. And not finding him.
Head snapping right, Sam sought out Lydecker's familiar figure, found him. "Where's Dean?" an edge of fear lacing the two words.
The gnawing dread in Alex's gut intensified as Lydecker spotted him, as his eyes met the older soldier's gaze. Without a word to Sam, Alec began shoving his way forward toward Lydecker, tried to quiet the rampant fear that was throwing a thousand questions at him that he couldn't answer, didn't want to answer. He didn't even realize Sam was at his back, had followed closely in his wake, not until his brother spoke to Lydecker before he could wet his dry mouth enough for speech.
"Where's Dean?" Sam demanded, voice tight, breath restricted as he slid in beside Alec, stood before Lydecker, a Lydecker who was markedly alone.
"He sent me to meet you. He's not coming," Lydecker bluntly answered, knew enough about missions going awry, unfulfilled expectations to know that beating around the bush was just a waste of time and energy.
"What?" Sam stammered, didn't understand what Lydecker was saying, what he was implying.
Not wasting time interrogating Lydecker, Alec pulled out his cell phone, called Dean…and heard the rift of music coming from Lydecker's hand. A hand that held out a phone, Dean's phone. Punching the cancel button on his phone, Alec angrily snagged the phone from Lydecker's palm.
"He said he would be in touch after he's safe, once the tracker wears off," Lydecker delivered the communiqué and braced for the backlash, cursed Winchester for making him be the bearer of bad news. He watched the two men, saw that their reactions were polar opposite. That where stunned hurt came off of Sam Winchester in waves, livid anger blasted from Alec.
"This is just great! We just got him back and now he just ditches us!" Alec snarled, turned his back on Lydecker, on Sam, hoped they were blinded enough by his anger to not see his fear, to realize how close he was to coming apart.
"What's his plan?" Sam quietly directed at Lydecker, knew his brother well enough to know that Dean always had a plan, sometimes bad ones, almost always reckless ones, but always plans.
Alec threw over his shoulder, "You mean besides letting us blowing in the wind?"
Meeting Sam's intense gaze, Lydecker supplied, "I told Dean that the tracker in…his blood would only give off a signal for a few weeks, maybe a month. He thought he could keep on the run that long." Nervously, Lydecker shot a glance to Alec's tense back, hoped that the transgenic hadn't picked up on his stumbling hesitation. He had promised Dean that he wouldn't reveal that the tracker was bonding with Alec's blood in Dean's system, that Alec would not have any reason to blame himself for however things turned out.
"On the run. Alone," Sam bitterly repeated, couldn't believe Dean was doing this, was making the same decision that their father had, a decision that had done nothing but lose time that he could have had with his father, time his family could have spent together.
Lydecker couldn't keep his disapproval for Dean's "plan" out of his tone, didn't even try. "Yeah." Then he drew in a breath, provided, "Right now Boris' remaining men will be requesting backup so that will buy Dean some breathing room."
"To get as far away as he can," Alec concluded, couldn't shut down the little voice in his head that tacked on 'from Manticore…and from Sam, from me.' And, for as often as he had once contemplated leaving his brothers for their own safety, it pissed him off that Dean had done just that, had done what he hadn't, what Dean had fought against him doing, that Dean had pulled one of his infamous 'do as I say not as I do' stunts.
Turning around, Alec pinned Lydecker with his determined gaze. "Alright, so you hit up your contacts, get us looped into the tracker on Dean."
"So we can track him." Sam recognized and wholeheartedly agreed with Alec's intentions.
Lydecker grimly shook his head. "It's not like I had many allies left, and the ones I did have in Boris' organization…they are probably dead now."
Lydecker's excuse didn't give Alec a second's pause. "Then make new ones. Call me with Dean's coordinators as soon as you have them," and he began stalking by Lydecker.
"You don't want much do you?" Lydecker sarcastically bit out as Alec passed him by.
Alec smiled brazenly at Lydecker, "My commander used to say that there is no such thing as the impossible."
Then Alec and Sam melted back into the crowd, left Lydecker standing there, talking to himself. "Kid enjoys throwing my own words back at me…"
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Alec was in a hurry…and he had no where to go, knew that Sam was keeping up with his headlong pace believing that he had a destination, a plan, wasn't just aimlessly plowing forward, wasn't lost. After all, he wasn't alone, he had Sam. Sam hadn't ditched him, hadn't even held him accountable for all the crap heaped on their heads because of Manticore, had just…remained at his side. Sam trusted him.
Halting abruptly, Alec swung to face Sam, needed to confess that he didn't have a clue what to do now.
"I can't believe Dean is pulling the same crap that our Dad did. Is running out on us to keep us 'safe'," Sam's last word dripped with bitterness but Alec could detect the hurt underlying them, knew that Sam's unfocused gaze across the street and not on him was Sam's way of attempting to hide it from him.
"Thought you were OK with that before, Dean keeping us safe…" but Alec felt shame spike in him even as the words left him, at the bitterness resonating in them. Sam wasn't the one that he was mad at.
"Ok with it? No. Understood why Dean would do it? Yeah. But that was when we were going to just split up for an hour or so, not …." Sam broke off but he couldn't derail his thoughts as easily. 'Forever.' Because Dean's plan, it sucked. Had a chance of success of…well not much. And Dean knew that, had to know that. Dean wouldn't have left them behind if he thought he was actually going to make it out of this one alive.
Seeing Sam's mask begin to crumble, knowing that his brother's thoughts were making the same conclusions that his own were, Alec closed in the space between himself and Sam, lowly promised, "We'll find him, Sam. We will."
Sam's eyes clashed with Alec and he contemptuously challenged, "Before or after he's dead."
His brother's words delivered a direct hit, cut through the bullcrap shield Alec was hiding behind.
For Sam, there was no satisfaction in seeing Alec flinch, in watching the pain flare in Alec's eyes. And when Alec turned away from him, walked away from him, he silently cursed his own defensive mechanisms. Mechanisms that either caused the people he loved to walk away from him, or had him packing his bags and leaving them behind. And it came to him sharply, how crappy it was to be the one left behind, how badly it hurt being abandoned by the people you loved, who you thought loved you enough to never leave you. Bowing his head, he choked out, "I'm sorry," wasn't sure who he was apologizing to: Dean for all the times he had left him or to Alec for his words now.
Alec fisted his hands to keep himself from shoving people out of his path, wanted to outrun Sam's words, to outrun his own fears. He wanted to go somewhere that the pain wouldn't reach him if the worst happened this time. He gave a dark chuckle, knew he scared some people on the sidewalk when they cleared a path for him. What Boris wanted to create, a mindlessly obedient, emotionless transgenic, that didn't sound so bad right then. No guilt over wrong decisions, no gut wrenching fear, no pain….no family, no love, no brothers.
Abruptly, Alec halted, knew that he would take the guilt, the fear, even the pain in exchange for what he had been blessed with, for just the gift of being with his brothers for even another day. That it didn't matter if it ended even that day, it had been worth it, they had been worth it.
Sam didn't register Alec's return, not until his brother spoke.
"When Lydecker calls with Dean's coordinates we have to be ready to move. Dean'll probably have a few hours head start on us so we'll need to make it up on the road."
Slowly, Sam raised his head, met Alec's determined gaze, could tell that his brother wasn't going to allow him to push him away anymore than he was going to let Dean slip away from him, from either of them. "Dean will pick a fast car…."
Alec let a slow cocky smile emerge. "Well, then we'll just have to make sure our car's faster."
Recognizing the Winchester stubbornness in Alec's eyes, Sam felt renewed hope grow in him. "And what, you have a Lamborghini in your back pocket?" he asked with a small chuckle, was realizing that no one was leaving anyone anymore, not in this family
Alec's smile beamed brighter as he pulled out his phone, hit a speed dial and opened the conversation with, "Logan, its Alec. I need a fast car to go along with my newly repossessed home."
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TBC
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Have a great day!
Cheryl W.