Chapter 28.

Dean had been in his room for several hours and he was beginning to feel hungry. He was sure Sam and Mary would be in the kitchen or library. Jack and Cas could be too. It seemed like a better idea to visit his stash of snacks in the garage.

He first checked outside the door. Cas sometimes stood guard and he wanted no interaction with him right now. The corridor was empty, but he knew Cas could be invisible when he chose to be. "Hey, dumbass." he whispered. There was no reply and no sudden manifestation of a pissed-off angel, so he stepped out of the door and went quickly to the garage.

On arrival, he froze. Jack was near the car. Jack was touching the car. The damn nephilim had hands on his car! "Step away from the car!" he yelled.

Jack stepped back. He looked guilty.

"What are you doing to my car?" Dean demanded.

Lucifer's son said, "Nothing." but his voice shook. He was lying.

"Who told you to touch my car?" said Dean, "Did Cas send you to tamper with it?"

The nephilim looked terrified, as well he might. He had no powers to protect him. He should have waited for his grace to return before getting up to whatever sabotage he was doing.

"I was cleaning it." he said.

"What?" said Dean. The tone was wrong. The answer prosaic, even justifiable. The look in the kid's eyes held no guilt, only fear. It was the look a pre-school child might give a psychotic adult who was snarling at him for no reason. Dean felt sick. He now saw the bucket on the floor.

"When you were away, I cleaned the Impala every week." said Jack, still looking and sounding frightened, "I didn't want you to come back and find her covered in dust."

Dean went towards him. When he was close to the boy, he raised a hand in apology and Jack flinched.

"You're scared of me?" said Dean.

"No." said Jack, visibly trying to hide his fear.

"You are. You're scared of me."

"Not you, Dean. This is not you. This is from Michael and it scares me, but I will never be afraid of you."

Dean stepped back, wondering how the kid, at a time like this, could still make that distinction. He wasn't even sure that he could. "I'm sorry." he said.

"It's fine." said Jack, "I should have asked before I cleaned the car."

"I would never hurt you, Jack. I'll kill anyone who tries to hurt you."

A smile struggled to show itself, but Jack was still afraid. He could hardly have picked a less deserving target for his insanely paranoid rage.

"I never should've yelled. I had a bad night. I'm ... "

"I should have asked." said Jack, "The weekly clean just became a habit. I needed to do something. Life as a mascot ... "

A memory flashed through his mind of little Sammy, saying, "I wanna be a hunter, not your dumb mascot!" He had said similar things to his father, begging to be useful, to be a Winchester. He wanted to hug the kid. He wanted to hug all three of them. Jack needed reassurance and love and he couldn't give it, because Jack was half archangel. Jack was half Lucifer. He loved the kid like his own son, but his flesh crawled at the thought of touching him.

"Okay," said Dean, "I need to get out of here."

"You can't!" said Jack and anger flared in Dean again.

"What am I? A prisoner?"

"No! Dean, I just mean this is your home and leaving here to go off alone ... " Jack laid his hand on Dean's arm.

Dean instantly shook him loose. "Don't touch me! Don't ever touch me!" He wanted to knock the abomination to the ground. Jack, he told himself. It was Jack. It was a helpless, very human, innocent.

"I'm sorry." said Jack, the words barely audible.

"No, I'm sorry. This is why I need to get away. If I don't, I'll hurt you or Cas."

"If you leave, you'll be hurting yourself."

"Yeah, maybe, but I deserve it."

"No, you don't." said Jack.

"I can't be around celestials. I thought I could control this, but I can't." said Dean.

"If you really want to go, I have no way to stop you, but I know it's a mistake. I know it won't help anyone."

"Michael has twisted me into something I don't wanna be." said Dean, "And it makes me dangerous to everyone I care about."

"You could have hit me. You could have killed me. Without my powers, I can't even fight weak humans. You controlled the urge to harm me."

Dean noticed the absence of his mother's car. "Where's Mom?" he said.

"She and Sam went out."

"Where?" said Dean.

"To see Sarah."

"To talk about me?" said Dean.

"Is that bad? Don't you need her help?" said Jack.

"If I stay here, this will happen again." said Dean.

"Yes." said Jack, looking oddly happy about it.

"And I might kill you."

"You won't, because this will happen again. You'll overcome the anger and remember that I am not your enemy. Even if I had my full powers, I would never use them against you."

"Even just now?"

"As a last resort, I might have put you to sleep, but hurt you? No."

"I can't be sure I won't harm you. For that reason alone, I have no right to stay in the bunker."

"Do I need to beg?" said Jack.

"I can't stay. I should go before Sam and Mom come back. Tell them ... "

"Dean, please, give us more time!"

"You're my family and unless I can get over this, I can only ever be a threat to you."

"How will you get over it alone? You think you can drown it in whisky?"

"I think it's worth a try."

"You think that's a better way than Sarah can come up with?" said Jack.

Dean got into the car. "Shut up." he said.

"Is that from you or from Michael?"

"Don't know, don't care. I'll see you around, kid." He put the key in the ignition and turned it.

Jack got in the way and stood there. "Please, Dean."

"You know, right now, a substantial part of my brain is fine with driving right over you." he said.

"That's okay." said Jack, "I'm relying on your heart, which is 100% Winchester."

Dean turned the key back and removed it. "If I stay," he said, "Do we need to tell the others any of this happened?"

Jack looked thoughtful. "If I say nothing and then you leave anyway, they'll blame me. I'm not comfortable with that. I mean, Winchesters ... they can be a little irrational." He looked meaningfully at Dean.

"What if I were to promise to stay?" said Dean, "Can we then forget this little incident?"

Jack smiled. "Incident?" he said, "I'm glad you're here. I wanted to ask how the car looks."

Dean got out and examined her carefully. "She looks great. You've done a great job, apart from the wheels."

"Yeah, got distracted." said Jack, "I'll do those now."

He had every right to hold Dean in contempt, to be angry and to go to the others with loud complaints at the injustice of it all. Dean would have. Instead, the kid was offering him a do-over. It was an undeserved mercy.

"Jack ... " said Dean, he struggled for a second and then said, "Thanks."

"It's okay." said Jack, "I enjoy it. And someone had to take care of her when you couldn't." His eyes signalled that he knew what Dean had really been thanking him for. "I'll always do what I can." he said.

"You're a good kid." said Dean, wishing he could give Jack the hug he needed. "I'm hungry." he said, "If Mom and Sam are out, I guess I can eat in the kitchen. Cas isn't there, is he?"

"I think Cas and Jules are working on something together. That usually means library or archives."

Suspicion fell on Dean's chest like a lead weight. "What are they working on?" he said.

Jack clearly heard the paranoia creeping back into his voice. "Dean, don't you even trust Jules now?"

"Of course I do." he said, "I was just curious."

"All they ever work on is a way to defeat Michael, which is what we all want."

"Yeah." said Dean, trying to look untroubled. "So, breakfast. Look, Jack ... "

Jack nodded. "I'll do a good job on the car."