Seeing Double
Chapter Thirty-Four
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"You see…" Sam pushed his hair back from his forehead, sub-consciously trying to appear tidier, more respectable. "We could really use a ride to town." He looked anxiously at the man. "I can pay."
Brown eyes regarded him, considering, as the man tugged at a log of wood, settling it more securely in the open trunk. "There's two of you, y'say?"
"Yeah. My…brother. He's hurt his knee. I left him up top." Sam gestured at the screen of bushes on top of the slope.
The man slammed the trunk lid and sighed. "Well son, cash is a good persuader. Go fetch your brother and we'll get on the road." He flapped a hand at the two small boys. "Set in the front, outta the way."
Sam gabbled his thanks and jogged back up the bank, eager to get Ben into the car before the stranger changed his mind. The transgenic was waiting for him, his expression leaving Sam in no doubt that although he was obeying orders, for now, he wasn't happy about the situation.
"It would've been quicker to terminate them," he noted in a sullen tone.
"There's not gonna be any terminating!" Irritated, Sam hauled him onto his feet, getting a small, guilty twinge of satisfaction when the younger man's lips drew back in an involuntary grimace. "C'mon, before he changes his mind."
The slope was short but steep and extremely slippery; by the time they reached the bottom Ben's eyes were wide and shocked, moss green in the dappled light under the leaves.
"C'mon," Sam repeated in a kinder tone, wishing the younger man didn't look so much like Dean. It was hard to stay angry at him when it was Dean's face sweating in pain and Dean's arm shaking under his hand.
The man was suddenly beside them, taking hold of Ben's other arm. "Lemme give you a hand there, sonny." He peered at Ben's face and winced in sympathy. "Leg hurts some, huh? Let's get you in the car." He opened the rear door and gestured inside.
Sam realized with surprise that the transgenic was leaning into him, not only for support but to get as far away from the stranger as possible. He maneuvered himself into the cramped back seat, hauling Ben after him, all the time conscious of the curious stares of the young boys from the front seat. Ben manfully ground his teeth and dragged his injured leg inside the vehicle, ending up slumped against Sam's side. He was shaking uncontrollably, his face the color of old putty. Sam put an arm around him, finding the younger man's distress hurt him more than he wanted to admit.
The engine roared and clattered into riotous life, effectively preventing any conversation with the other occupants of the vehicle as they jolted down the unkept track. Ben shuddered, his body quivering against Sam's torso as he gripped at his injured leg above the knee and Sam ducked down, trying to get a measure of his torment from his expression. To his dismay, he saw that the transgenic's teeth had sunk into his bottom lip far enough to draw blood.
"Ben?"
There was something wild in the younger man's eyes, something desperate about the set of his jaw. Ben was visibly unravelling before his eyes, the amazing transgenic ability to deal with pain shredding away like smoke in a strong wind. Not now, Sam thought, not here. He pulled Ben closer, trying to cushion him against the impact of the bumps, murmuring reassurance into his ear almost as though he was a kid.
"Easy, try and relax. Shhh. C'mon, you can do it. You're the tough guy, remember, 494?"
"No." The whisper was forced through bitten lips. "493. I'm X5-493."
Sam's heart jumped, raced, jumped again. 493. Not Alec. He cursed under his breath. Of course it wasn't Alec. It had never been Alec. But one thing was for sure, Ben was Dean's clone.
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Alec came up to the surface slowly, easily, his eyes half way open before he realized he was in the clinic. He shot upright immediately and turned to the sound of a soft chuckle behind him.
"Well hey there, sleeping beauty."
Dean. Fully dressed, smirking and leaning against the window frame with a steaming mug of coffee in his hand.
Alec swung his feet to the floor, remembered he'd crashed out on Dean's bed and flushed, suddenly awkward, running his hand through his already crazily mussed-up hair to try and cover up his embarrassment.
"Good thing you're awake," said his brother drily. "You've had some weird ass visitors. I didn't know whether to gank 'em or shake their hands…" He paused, frowning. "Not sure all of 'em had hands."
"Guess they wanted to see for themselves how perfection can be made from something mediocre," said Alec with a sassy smirk as he blurred across the room and swiped the coffee from Dean's grasp. He took an appreciative slurp, his eyebrows lifting in surprise. "This is the real deal! Do you know how rare this is in Terminal City! Where'd you get it?"
"Get your own," said Dean without rancour, deftly removing the mug from Alec's hand. "Some big furry dude fetched it." He regarded Alec over the top of the mug, a serious expression settling on his face.
"Is there somethin' I should know about here, 'cause everyone comes by seems to look at you like you might break."
Alec was wondering how to answer without answering at all, when Joshua loomed in the doorway.
"Medium fella is awake." His happy boom filled the small room and Dean dodged out of the way, keeping a wary eye on proceedings as his surprised clone was enfolded in a huge hug.
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The man rubbed the dollars between his thumb and forefinger and handed half back to Sam, waving off his protest.
"Your brother's real sick. Was a time, pre-pulse, I wouldn't have took money for giving a sick man a ride to town, but now…" He motioned at the children in the front seat.
Sam thanked him, gripped his hand with vigor and took a more secure hold of Ben's arm as he turned towards the small pharmacy. Ben went along with him, looking dazed, all belligerence forgotten in his struggle to remain upright. They settled into a slow, halting rhythm that would've taken them to the door if Ben hadn't come to a sudden halt. Off balance, Sam teetered between one step and the next and turned to the transgenic with a questioning frown.
Ben ignored him, his face stricken as he stared at the battered brick façade of the church on the far side of the road.
"Ben?"
"She doesn't want me anymore."
"What? Who doesn't want you?" Sam's forehead crumpled in confusion.
"The Blue Lady." Ben pulled away from his grip with unexpected strength, lurching on his make-shift crutch in the direction of the church and muttering something half under his breath about failing in his mission.
He was rambling, Sam thought, hurrying after him and catching the heavy door as the transgenic blundered through it into the dimly lit interior. The church was empty, all dusty pews and a lingering smell of incense.
"Please…" Ben's whisper was plaintive and thready.
Sam realized the younger man had stopped in front of a damaged stained glass window depicting the Virgin Mary. He fumbled in his pocket and then reached out with a shaking hand; something rattled onto the stone shelf beneath the window.
"I'll try harder…get more…"
The urgency of the plea seemed to use up the last of Ben's reserves and he sagged backwards. Sam caught him and steered him onto a pew, supporting him there with one palm against his chest as he peered up at the shelf with puzzled eyes. Three adult-sized, blood stained teeth and another still attached to a piece of jawbone were scattered across the stone.
Sam found himself sitting on the hard wood of the pew, his mind racing and his arms automatically locked around the half-conscious man beside him.
"Ben," he said helplessly. "What did you do?"
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Joshua pumped Dean's hand heartily, causing coffee to slop everywhere and Dean's eyes to go wide with surprise and then crinkle around the edges when he remembered Alec had compared Sam to the large canine transgenic.
Sam. And suddenly it was as though the bottom had dropped out of Dean's gut, because his little brother was a whole universe away and now there was no way to tell him that Dean forgave him, that there'd never been anything to forgive because Sam couldn't help being possessed by a demon.
Alec must have read something on his face; perhaps it was a particular expression Dean reserved for worrying about Sam without even knowing, because Alec just came straight out with it.
"Where's Sam?"
Dean's eyes said everything his face didn't and Alec was suddenly closer, his cuff brushing against Dean's arm.
"What? What happened to him?"
There was a note of fear in the question and Dean shook his head, dipping his chin towards his injured shoulder in an unconscious motion that the transgenic did not miss.
"Sam got left behind. He's okay."
For now, with that, Alec had to be content, because Joshua was offering food and somewhere for Dean and Alec to stay and it was easier to be carried along with it all than try and talk about the elephant in the room.
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Whatever it was that'd caused Ben to enter the church, it was enough to drain the few physical reserves he had left.
Sam, gory remains safely stashed in his pocket, half-dragged him out of the church and into the pharmacy. To his disappointment he found that the post-pulse world had little in the way of medicines in general and even less in the way of antibiotics, even for a desperate man with a babbling and semi-conscious younger brother in tow.
One night, he thought, just one night in a motel with hot water and some good food. Then he was going to beg, borrow or steal a car and head into Seattle. What Ben needed, only another transgenic could provide and if the date in the pharmacy window was correct then Alec, and therefore other transgenics, would be found in Seattle.
He set out on foot for the motel. Two blocks seemed like ten before he'd gone a hundred yards and finally he ditched the crutch and hoisted Ben over his shoulder in a fireman's lift made awkward by the need to avoid the injured leg. The transgenic moaned and muttered and finally, thankfully, passed out.
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"Mac'n'cheese, and creamed corn." Joshua waved at the stack of cans and cartons on the work surface. "Big fella is making a feast."
"You got a lot of food there." Alec pointed out, slightly surprised that Joshua had managed to accumulate such a large quantity of supplies.
"Mole is giving me extra," Joshua told him proudly. "For medium fella and his brother and everyone who is coming to see them."
Dean shuffled uncomfortably from one foot to the other. His shoulder was nearly healed and the time/space travel sickness was easing off but it was doing nothing to alleviate the headache growing at the back of his eyes. A headache caused by a lack of Sam; a headache that wasn't going away any time soon because somewhere, some time, Sam was looking for him and worrying and thinking it was all his fault that Dean had disappeared.
Alec read the body language easily and intervened smoothly, suggesting perhaps just one or two people might be a good idea; the food was all dried or canned, so it would save until another day. Dean found himself sitting on a half-stuffed armchair while Joshua and Alec argued in a friendly fashion about who would be struck off Joshua's mental guest list.
Dean listened, the surreal conversation about a mac'n'cheese dinner party competing with his thoughts that Sam was the man who should be here to deal with dinner parties, except he wasn't. Joshua's voice went up a notch. It seemed the problem was the number of chairs, so it was probably a good thing half the occupants of Terminal City weren't invited after all. There was space for Dean, Alec and Joshua, Max and hopefully not Logan (from Alec) and that left one spare seat.
Dean rubbed his aching head and wished he could lie down.
"Alec."
The transgenic was scowling and grumbling about Logan and Dean remembered that Alec kind of liked Max, so he would by default definitely not be all that crazy about Logan.
"Alec," he said, louder this time. "Hey!"
They turned to him, startled.
"Dude, calm down." Dean rubbed his forehead again wearily and stood up. "You gotta have one more? Ask Mole." He flexed his shoulder in an unconscious gesture, remembering Mole's fingers driving spikes of agony into his injury and the way the tunnel greyed out before his eyes.
"Mole?" Alec looked surprised, then suddenly pleased in a subtle sort of way. His eyebrows did a dance, moving from surprise to pleasure to puzzlement. "Couldn't help but notice, you two weren't on exactly amicable terms last time you met?"
They hadn't been, Dean agreed. They were still not on friendly terms, he thought privately, but the cigar chewing transgenic had looked like he might spit out the cigar and start chowing down on Dean if Alec was hurt. Then there was the not so small matter of his weapons, last seen tucked into Mole's clothing.
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"One night." Sam braced his shoulder against the door frame, wondering how it was possible for it to take so long to find a vacant room in what was clearly a virtually empty motel. Ben's weight dragged at his back muscles and the younger man was starting to stir and mutter again, which was doing nothing to reassure the fraught looking woman on the desk.
"My brother," Sam said wearily. "Too much to drink."
She handed over a key with the sort of look that said she didn't believe a word of it and thought the worst of him.
Sam shivered, wondering what sort of a world it was, where it seemed a man could physically snatch another and walk through town with him over his shoulder, with never a word being said or a cop being called.
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As always, thanks so much for reading… I do really appreciate the support.
'Rewind to the beginning' has been updated today if anyone fancies a bit of pure Supernatural, and 'Omens in the wind' will be updated in the next few days. Both mine but posted under 'Dreamsnake' as they're written in a different style. :)
Many thanks to reviewers of chapter 33: alisonmichal, Eboni, onanickle, Idreamofivan, eliane314, waitingforAslan, Irreality, sabidoche, ngregory763, Zachiliam and ThisNimo.