Pivot Point
Story Name: Tales from Pivot Point
Pen Name: ElenaRoan
Disclaimer: Don't own any of them, written purely for enjoyment.
Warnings:
Summary: Various people the boys have come across in their lives
Timeline: Begins season 4 of Supernatural
Note: This is also a crossover, though it is only dependent on Pivot Point. Credit to MOG for the AU being used for the crossover.
Chapter 13: Family
"What's going on, Chris?" Buck asked once they were all at the team leader's ranch, and beers had been handed out.
Chris glanced at Vin, who cleared his throat.
"I… uh… called Dean last night about the cousin situation." The sniper started.
"That explains why Chris told us to shelve it." JD commented, "I take it one of them was able to help."
Vin nodded, "Dean was there."
"So, he was able to tell you who it was?" Nathan asked, "was he able to give you the hospital they're in, assuming they're still alive."
The medic didn't especially hold much hope along those lines, Vin was there after all. If there'd been the slimmest chance of being able to say goodbye to the mysterious cousin, he'd have been given time off in a split second, and Ezra undoubtedly would have worked his magic to get him a plane ticket if it was needed.
"Yeah. And before you continue along that line of thought, he got that angel that rescued Sheriff Mills on the line, and she teleported there and saved Sam."
The rest of the team froze, some with beers halfway to the mouths.
"Sam?" Josiah asked, "the brothers are your cousins?"
Vin nodded, "they have the record of mum's death in their family tree, just had never had reason to compare it to my records. On their mum's side."
"Holy crap…" JD mumbled, and from the strained smiles that cracked various faces, he was only voicing what the rest were thinking.
The distinctive rumble of the impala interrupted the conversation.
"Dean said they'd head here today, bring what they knew of the family with them." Vin explained quickly as Chris headed towards the door, "I don't know how the telling of Sam went, though."
"Surely he wouldn't be upset about finding out you're family." JD asked incredulously.
"JD, their entire family was hunted down and killed. Unless I miss my guess that's why they didn't know about him before now, he was kept secret." Josiah replied quietly, saving Vin from doing so, "Sam would be upset that Vin might be in danger because of that. And remember what Anna said when she told all of us about the hierarchy, that side of the family might be killed if an angel encountered them."
Chris let the two brothers in with a soft clatter, forestalling further conversation. Dean had a battered journal in his hands. Sam crossed the distance between him and Vin in just a couple of long strides to pull him into a firm hug. He was easily a head taller than the sniper.
"Sorry." The middle brother all but whispered.
"Not your fault." Vin replied, continuing when Sam gave a disbelieving huff of laughter, "I mean it. None of it is your fault, not the demon killing our family, not the psileech, none of it."
Sam pulled back, "but…"
"I mean it." Vin told him, "now come on, join us as now known family."
Buck handed the brothers a couple of beers as Vin led them over, Dean giving the sniper a clap on the shoulder as he did so.
It wasn't until Dean opened the journal a while later, once everyone had relaxed, that it became glaringly apparent just how extensively the family had been all but annihilated. The family tree was neatly documented, right down to the neat writing recording the cause of death, date, and location. It took Vin a moment to place it as Dean's handwriting, he couldn't imagine having to do the research that indicated. There was a separate piece of paper with it, also in Dean's handwriting. He frowned once he picked it up and looked over it, with few exceptions all the dates of death on this list were in the same year.
"All our mum's friends." Dean answered his unspoken question, "anyone who ever knew her. From the doctor who delivered her, to her school teachers, to the priest who married her and dad."
One of the team swore softly.
"She can't have taken that lying down…" Vin said softly.
"She was a Hunter, even if she wanted out of that life, I doubt she did." Dean replied, "we're reasonably sure she was able to get a warning out to her family at least, after the first burst, it took a lot longer for them to kill the rest."
"Elizabeth was the last." Sam continued, "dropped even further off the grid than Hunters usually are and ran. Stayed ahead of them a good 10 years from what we could tell, she must have met your dad during that time."
"She wasn't the last." Dean corrected sadly, "Jess was the last."
"Jess wasn't…" Sam started, quickly suppressed pain flitting across his face.
"She would have been family if that bastard hadn't killed her, I wasn't blind enough to miss that." Dean refuted gently.
"Yeah… she was dead the moment she fell in love with me." Sam retorted caustically, before closing his eyes briefly and taking a controlled breath. Then headed out the back door to the veranda after excusing himself softly.
Dean swore at himself quietly, shot an apologetic glance at the team, before starting for the door to follow his brother. Chris intercepted him.
"Let me."
"But…"
"I know what it's like to have a loved one torn from you violently. I'm guessing that's what happened with Jess?"
"Yellow-eyed bastard pinned her to the ceiling and set her on fire on the anniversary of our mother's death in the same manner."
"Damn. Okay, we'll be back soon. I know you didn't mean that to hurt and I'm betting he knows that too."
"Chris… he blames himself… he never seems to actually have it sink in that he was another victim of that bastard, that what they did wasn't his fault. I should…"
"More people saying the same thing will reinforce it." Chris stated, he glanced at Josiah before heading to the door.
The big profiler's hand landed gently on Dean's shoulder before he could start to follow.
"I'm an idiot." The eldest brother mumbled.
"You didn't know. You wanted to acknowledge her as family even if it hadn't been official. You can't have known he blamed himself for it." Josiah rumbled.
Dean snorted, "yeah, I did. I shouldn't have pushed it."
"Looks like blaming themselves for something they're not responsible for isn't confined to Sam." Buck pointed out gently.
Dean just shrugged.
Sam hadn't gone far, was just leaning on the railing watching the horses that were out in the paddock.
"Sam?" Chris asked softly, the glance he got from the middle brother was part amused question part resignation.
"I'm okay, just need a moment to gather my thoughts. Dean send you out?"
"I overrode him. I know what it's like to have a loved one torn from your life violently."
Sam gave a half laugh that had very little amusement in it, "that's one way of describing seeing the love of your life burnt to death in front of your eyes."
"That would have been horrible. At least I didn't see it with mine."
"What happened?" Sam asked softly.
The more Chris learned about what the brothers had been through, the more amazed he got at the compassion they, and in particular, Sam, didn't hesitate to display.
"Appeared to be a car bomb, though they couldn't find any components of it. Then the team and I found out that it was a witch with an obsession about me. Had a nutty idea that with them out of the way I'd realise I was madly in love with her."
"Crazy isn't confined to regular humans."
"That's for sure. Had some bad days where I'd think I should have seen it, should have been able to protect them. Then would drink myself stupid until someone poured me into bed."
"Definitely know that feeling. But… a lot of alcohol and telekinesis doesn't really mix well. Of course… feeling crap about yourself and telekinesis doesn't mix well either."
"What happened?"
"It backfired on me, nearly killed me." Sam shrugged, "Dean found a solution, wasn't easy, but it worked."
"Self-destruction is a hard habit to break."
"True."
"Combination of Josiah and Buck for me. All but sat on me to stop me drinking myself stupid and made me talk. Unconventional for sure, but the team isn't the most conventional at the best of times. Kept it from ending up on my record and getting the team broken up also."
Sam stayed quiet for a moment before speaking up again.
"Why don't you hate me?"
"Why would I?" Chris shot back.
"My existence puts his life in danger."
"Not your existence that does that, the blame for that falls directly on the beings that want you to be something you aren't. Bad guys target the people around their main target all the time, it's not the target's fault, it's the bad guys."
After a moment, Dean shook himself and turned back to the rest of the team. Returning to the journal he flipped to the next page and pulled out the folded piece of paper that was there, this he turned and handed to Vin.
"Here, you might want this too."
Vin opened it and froze as he took in what was recorded on it.
"Bobby had it in his records. He was a Hunter." Dean stated.
"What is it?" Buck asked.
"My dad…" Vin told him a little shakily, rereading the few lines that detailed Vincent Tanner's entrance into Hunting, and his exit.
"There might be some more out there on his side of the family…" Dean told him, "we didn't go digging yet."
"Given he was a teenager when his parents and siblings died, that's not particularly hopeful."
JD popped up from his seat and came over to look at the information, "I can see what I can turn up if you'd like?"
Vin nodded and let the youngest member of the team take the slip of paper.
"Didn't mean to cause pain." Dean commented softly.
"You didn't." Vin told him, "just… wasn't expecting to get information on him also. We hadn't been able to track him back from my birth certificate… probably should have twigged then that it was a deliberate attempt to hide me."
"Doesn't detail the information of exactly what you were being hidden from. Can just as easily be extrapolated that they were seeking to hide your connection to your parents from the authorities." Ezra put in, "which could happen for any number of reasons, not all of which are nefarious."
"Let me guess… you DID spot that." Buck commented.
"And without further information, it was impossible to speculate as to the reasons. Indeed, some people are so bad at spelling that it may have occurred purely by accident. Though with the information we had available regarding the cousin before the happy discovery of the connection to the brothers Winchester I was inclined towards thinking that Mr Tanner's parents had escaped imprisonment at the hands of criminals. Which would handily explain the duality of hiding him yet registering his birth."
Ezra noticed Dean relax a minuscule amount and raised an eyebrow at him in question.
"I'm glad you think finding the connection to us is a good thing." The eldest brother told him.
"You were worried we wouldn't?" Josiah asked.
"Well… leaving aside that we're not exactly anyone's first choice for long lost family…"
"No one bothered to ask me then." Vin put in.
Dean hesitated for a moment before continuing, "some of the most powerful beings in existence are hunting us, they've already killed most of the family. And even if you didn't blame us for it, I certainly wouldn't have been surprised if you'd decided you wanted nothing to do with us."
Vin moved forward to stand in front of the older brother and glared up at him, "one, it's not your fault. Neither of you. Two, running and hiding wouldn't stop them if they knew about me anyway. And three, with you, is the best chance of survival. And that's without even touching on the fact that you're family. I don't have many. Until that agent showed up at the office, the entirety of my family were those I'd chosen. Getting actual blood family, and them already being folks I count as friends, is not something I would discard. No matter who is fucking with them."
Dean bit his lip for a moment, then pulled the slim sniper in for a rough hug, "think you could repeat that when Sam gets back in here? First thing he jumped to when I told him was how the psileech had to have been set deliberately by Zachariah, and that the only reason either of you were there to cross paths was because he'd used that Enochian exorcism on Lilith."
"As often as the two of you need." Vin replied, before pulling back from the hug and patting his arm.
The eldest brother managed a slight chuckle, "and I'm not the one the fucking demons keep outright telling that they're the reason they're doing the crap they are. At least the damn angels don't do that, just get annoyed we're not falling in line with their carefully ordered plans."
"Can't be easy, especially for a good man like Sam." Josiah rumbled.
Dean winced a little, "no… it isn't."
Vin and Josiah shared a brief look, wondering if it would be a good idea to try to find out what caused the flinch, before deciding simultaneously that it was a landmine best left alone for now.
Sam came back in with Chris a short while later, and by unspoken consensus between Team Seven, they switched to more lighthearted conversation topics.
7