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THE LONG HOT SUMMER OF 95

Virginia, Summer of 95

Chapter Twenty Nine

John's fingers touched the cold steel pressed against his warm skin, right now he couldn't read his son; Dean's face was expressionless.

Dean starred at the figure on his knees in front of him, his emotions were mixed; he was trying hard to use his head, to work things through logically while his heart was telling him not to trust but his gut instinct was telling something entirely different.

John held his fingers on the gun as he smiled at his son, willing him to trust him "please" he said softly, not caring if Michael Sheridan thought it was for his benefit.

The warmth in his father's double eyes, the desperation in that one word, that fact that he wanted him to help him was chipping away at the shield Dean had built around his heart.

Tears were welling up in John's eyes "please I'm begging" the thought that Dean hated him was killing him, spilling over he let the tears roll freely down his face

Michael Sheridan had been standing silently lapping it up thinking that this was for him, little did he realise that John was talking to Dean "That's it Johnny boy, I'm loving the new you"

The only way Dean could let his father know that he was with him on this was to smile.

"You son of a ..." John stopped mid sentence as he saw a weak smile appear on Dean's face and for the first time he saw that Dean's eyes were alive

Calmly pulling the gun half way from its holster by his fingers John watched Dean closely; as soon as he was out of harm's way he had literately seconds to pull the trigger, he just hoped that his injured son was up for it.

Closing his eyes Dean summoned up his remaining strength when he was ready he shifted his weight onto his left as he lowered his body into position, he remembered that Bobby had a weapon, a knife his fevered brain thought but all he had was his elbow. Close to his ear he heard Michael Sheridan's words "carry on, Johnny boy, beg me" Anger welled up inside of him, this was his fault, he should have known better then to be fooled by a shape shifter. Opening his eyes they soon met with John's, no words needed to be spoken, they knew each other were ready

Sliding the gun the rest of the way out of his ankle holster John waited for Dean to make his move.

Dean pulled his elbow back as far as he could before he thrust it hard into Michael Sheridan's ribs. With the wind knocked out of him Michael Sheridan buckled from the pain, momentarily loosening his grip on Dean. Using the remainder of his strength Dean took advantage and pulled away, unsupported he almost lost his balance as he tried to step out of the way

The second John saw that Dean had pulled free he fired. He watched as the silver bullet exposed out of the gun and to him it seemed to slow down in mid air as he held his breath and then to his horror it speeded up suddenly he was watching helplessly as Michael Sheridan once again grabbed a hold of Dean.

Everything was happening to quickly for Dean battered body, one minute he was free and the next he was being grabbed and pulled back by Michael Sheridan, then he was falling with a new level of pain in his injured shoulder as he wound was ripped open.

The bullet hit Michael Sheridan in the arm that was holding on to Dean, he screamed out in pain as the force of the bullet pushed his arm and shoulder backwards ripping open the sixteen years olds wound, he tried to hang on and use Dean as a shield but the silver from the bullet was quickly melting and burning the inside of his arm as it travelled upwards making him lose feeling in his fingers. As if Dean was poison to him he let the kid drop to the ground.

For one tense moment as John saw his son fall, hearing his scream of pain he thought he had shot him. Keeping himself together he fired again as he shouted out his son's name. The second bullet found a better target; it hit Michael Sheridan in the heart sending him flying backwards onto the ground.

Immediately John was scrambling to his feet, shaking off the numbness in his legs as he approached his motionless son lying face down "Dean" Kneeling down once again he carefully started to turn Dean onto his back, he could feel the heat radiating off his skin. The shock of seeing the state of Dean's infected bleeding shoulder made him take an involuntary sharp intake of breath. He was back on his feet moving back to his duffel bag for the first aid kit

Stopping the blood flow was John's first thought his second was to get Dean out of the hot sun, taking a look round he found a place he could do both as his eyes fell on the tow truck. Shouldering the duffel bag he hurried back to his son. Carefully gathering him up in his arms he carried Dean to the shaded side of truck where he gently place him down as he cell phone came to life.

XXX

Back on the road again and heading for the Canadian border Josh took his eyes off the road and glanced crossed at Sam "It'll be great Sammy just you wait and see you'll love Canada. I can get a full time job" he didn't know what, but he was good with his hands "and you can go back to school Sammy" he had been thinking, they would have to change their surname "of course we won't be Winchesters, we'll have to change that" Josh's enthusiasm was met by silence. Plastering on one of his million dollar smiles he knew he could win Sam over "Come on Sammy work with me here"

With his insides in turmoil Sam had been starring out of the window at the passing scenery. He wanted to scream out "You're not my brother", he so wished he could punch the imposer sat next to him in the face. As he turned to give him a weak smile he saw through the rear view mirror his true brother's duffel bag. Normally Dean would have put it in the boot but it was sat on the back seat of the car, for a split second he wondered why his double hadn't but for whatever reason it was in his favour, because he knew that at the bottom of the bag was Dean's spare cell phone. Then a thought occurred to him "can I use your walkman?"

Josh thought he knew why Sam wanted the walkman so he wouldn't have to listen to him. He fixed his eyes on the road not showing his disappointment "sure" he replied. Realising he had been too naive to think he could win Sam over to easily

Sam climbed between the front seats, his back shielding Josh's view as searched for the cell phone. Once he had found it he slipped it into the waistband of his jeans before pulling out the walkman which had been lying virtually on top of Dean's rolled up clothes. Pleased with himself Sam sat back down in the passenger seat and started to remove the cassette that was already in the walkman.

"The cassette, silly" Josh had seen some chick music in the glove compartment that was more to Sam's taste.

Sam froze; maybe he hadn't been as clever as he thought. But as he looked up he saw the smile on the double's face. "What" he asked innocently trying to hide his fear

Sam handed him the cassette as he watched his brother's double open the glove compartment and pull out a few cassettes "here see if any like any of these"

A relieved Sam took the cassettes; he wasn't really interested in listening to music, he slipped the first one into the walkman "thanks"

Josh smiled back "what are brothers for"

Placing the headset on Sam pressed the play button, blocking out the false version of his brother. He then started to memorize signs on the way, towns, routes anything he could tell dad where he was. He pushed his thoughts back about Dean, he wasn't going let his imagination run away with him, Dean was alive he couldn't allow himself to think otherwise.

Sam had seen and heard enough, removing headset he was ready to take the next step in his plan "can we stop somewhere for food?"

Josh looked at his watch; they had been on the road a few hours, he could do with a break "Ok, we stop at the next gas station we come too"

TBC